Melatonin does not reduce mortality in adult hospitalized patients with COVID-19: a multicenter retrospective observational study. Sánchez-Rico M, de la Muela P, Herrera-Morueco JJ, Geoffroy PA, Limosin F, Hoertel N. J Travel Med. 2022 Feb 5;. doi: 10.1093/jtm/taab195. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 35137210. Download from HAL-INSERM
Melatonin is an hormone secreted from the pineal gland indicated in the treatment of insomnia and circadian sleep disturbances. In the needed search for an effective treatment for patients with COVID-19, this molecule has been previously proposed as a potential useful treatment against COVID-19 thanks to its antioxidant, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory and potential SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibition activities. However, while a recent randomized clinical trial involving patients hospitalized with mild to moderate COVID-19 suggests that oral melatonin administration as an adjuvant therapy added to the standard of care may improve respiratory symptoms and time of patient discharge vs standard of care alone, another randomized trial found no substantial improvement in patients hospitalized for severe COVID-19. In this report, we used data from a multicenter retrospective study involving patients hospitalized for laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in Greater Paris University hospitals, as detailed elsewhere, and sought to examine the association between melatonin use and mortality in this population. Observational studies examining the potential usefulness of existing treatments against COVID-19 can be crucial to help prioritize molecules in clinical trials.
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