Over the last decade, melatonin has gone from being a one-time resource for the jet lag to become a permanent tenant of millions of families and is present in many places to Buy it. And it is cheap, can be bought without a prescription and has a “natural” aura. However, science is pointing to a problem it is creating: the use of these hormones in children has skyrocketed.
Its main use. At a time when stress is accompanying us on a daily basis, insomnia is undoubtedly a serious problem for anyone, and the solution that seems easiest is melatonin. Under the pretext that it is something natural and without a prescription (in its lowest concentrations), it can be abused indiscriminately.
The problem arises when children who cannot sleep well are also given a melatonin gummy so that they can sleep. Something that has already triggered cases of overdose and chronic treatments without medical supervision.
The blind experiment. The study, led by the University of Kansas, has put figures to a trend that pediatricians have been observing in consultation for some time. By analyzing 19 studies (which include children up to 6 years old), researchers have drawn a worrying picture: between 2009 and 2021, accidental ingestions and overdoses of melatonin in minors in the US grew by 500%.
And it is something that seems quite normal, since at the beginning the use of melatonin is applied to help sleep on a difficult night, but in the end it is becoming chronic by showing that between 40 and 50% of children who start the treatment continue taking it two or three years later. The problem is that there is currently no solid data on the long-term safety or effectiveness of melatonin in typically developing children.
The legal vacuum. One of the big problems in Spain and the European Union is the product label. Currently, melatonin can be found as a dietary supplement in supermarkets, health food stores and countless other places. But it is also available as a medicine with pharmaceutical quality controls and intended primarily to treat severe chronodisruption.
This is why some experts, such as Carlos Javier Egea Santaolalla, president of the Spanish Federation of Sleep Medicine Societies (FESMES), warn that this is an important public health problem. The proposed solution? That melatonin is always considered as a medication that must be prescribed to guarantee control of the duration and dose administered.
Recommendations under supervision. It is the right thing to do when we talk about using melatonin in the little ones in the house, since it has been seen how it can be useful in children with ADHD to advance sleep. But the problem is that there are no studies that tell us about the consequences of using it for more than two years in a row.
This is something that is also conveyed by the Spanish Sleep Society (SES), which recognizes that melatonin is a valuable tool in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
A quality problem. When purchasing melatonin as a supplement, the consumer is faced with a “lottery” of formulations. Previous studies have shown that the actual amount of hormone in an over-the-counter gummy or pill can vary drastically from what the label says (sometimes up to 400% more). For Spanish experts, medicalizing its use would not only limit unnecessary consumption, but would guarantee that what the child ingests is exactly what the doctor has prescribed.
In this way, the scientific community has pointed out that melatonin is a powerful drug that disrupts the endocrine system, not a magic solution so that parents can rest.
Images | Annie Spratt Myriam Zilles
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