Their number has tripled in the past seven years
Significant increase in the use of sleeping pills by British children
The abuse of more children to the hormone raised the ire of the concerned associations.
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Pediatricians prefer to give sleep hormones rather than behavioral therapy.
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The number of children being prescribed medication to help them sleep has nearly tripled in the past seven years, amid fears of drug overuse due to a lack of support for families.
An analysis of UK Public Health Authority data found that more than 60,000 children were prescribed melatonin in March 2022, compared to about 21,000 patients under the age of 18 in April 2015, an increase of 168%.
Melatonin is a hormone that plays an important role in the body's sleep cycle.
However, it is increasingly being prescribed by doctors, in pill form, as a treatment for children with sleep problems.
Especially those with other conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
In recent years, new products have appeared on the market for sleep problems in children, but only under professional supervision.
However, the high number of prescriptions has led to concern that it will be overused for longer periods.
While it has fewer side effects than many other medications taken to help sleep, it can cause daytime sleepiness, headaches, stomachaches, and nausea.
There are also concerns that there are few studies on any long-term effects of melatonin in children.
Josephine Arndt, a professor of endocrinology at the University of Surrey, said she was concerned about the trend of increasing prescriptions, explaining that “(melatonin) has profound effects on reproductive function in animals, which depend on the length of the day to the seasonal physiological time.” Follow-up “It takes a long time to know if it has an effect on humans;
Brief studies in children suggest it is safe, but more needs to be done.
The chief executive of The Sleep Charity, Vicki Beavers, said the increasing number of patients taking melatonin was "disappointing", explaining that "the first line of intervention should always be behavioral;
Unfortunately, many families cannot reach this goal.
Bevers added that sleep problems are on the rise in all age groups, with the pandemic playing an important role.
"People were spending more time in front of screens, fewer opportunities to exercise and change routines, and there was increasing anxiety," she said.
For his part, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, Stuart Pearson, said that because melatonin was safer than other sedative or hypnotic drugs, doctors may tend to use it “instead of behavioral interventions, which are likely to be more effective.” “While melatonin is considered perfectly safe, it is, in fact, a hormone.
As such, long-term use of a hormone for sleep therapy, where the effects are limited, may not be a good direction.”
Although it has fewer side effects than many other medications taken to help sleep, melatonin can cause daytime sleepiness, headaches, stomachaches, and nausea.
awareness of benefit
Alastair Sutcliffe, professor of general pediatrics at UCLA, who was part of the team responsible for a trial that found melatonin to be safe and beneficial in treating severe sleep problems in children, said the increase in prescriptions could be associated with increased awareness of its benefit.
Sutcliffe continued, "There has been a great deal of slowness in prescribing it for treatment by doctors and some pediatricians, although experience has shown some benefits to its use," adding, "I think this matter is being addressed now."
He added that because melatonin is a substance produced naturally by the body, it is unlikely to have more harmful effects than sleeping pills.
60,000
A child who was prescribed melatonin in March 2022.
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