The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry
-
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry · Feb 2009
Randomized Controlled TrialMelatonin fails to improve sleep or agitation in double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial of institutionalized patients with Alzheimer disease.
Patients with Alzheimer dementia often display both agitated behavior and poor sleep. Given that the disease is often associated with low endogenous levels of melatonin, exogenous melatonin administration may lead to improvements in sleep and agitation. ⋯ : This study failed to find a beneficial effect of exogenous melatonin, consistent with a number of other studies. The lack of efficacy may be related to the absence of a true treatment effect or to the superphysiologic dose of melatonin used.