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Melatonin
Ray Sahelian, MD
Private Practice Marina Del Rey, Calif
Arch Fam Med. 1996;5(4):196.
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Since late 1993, melatonin, a neurohormone released by the pineal gland each night to help us sleep, has been available without a prescription in many health food stores and pharmacies. Various companies manufacture and distribute it in the form of pills and lozenges. Numerous articles have appeared in lay magazines about its uses for jet lag and insomnia, including the November 6, 1995, issue of Newsweek. Countless Americans are using melatonin. Yet, I have not come across articles about melatonin in family practice medical journals.
Over the last year I have started using melatonin in my practice for those patients who wish to occasionally use a nonprescription sleeping pill. I have also conducted numerous surveys of melatonin use. Of the 200 people I have surveyed who have tried melatonin, 85% found it to be effective, and 15% found it to be too weak or did not feel any effect. A
. . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]
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