June 4, 2022 at 2:17 am Updated 8 hrs ago
By: Associated Press
Researchers are drawing attention to an increase in sleep poisoning in children with melatonin, including a major jump during the pandemic.
Last year, U.S. poison control centers received more than 52,000 calls about children consuming worrying amounts of dietary supplement, a six-fold increase from a decade earlier. Most of these calls refer to young children who accidentally got into melatonin bottles, some of which come in the form of baby jelly beans.
Parents can think of melatonin as the equivalent of a vitamin and leave it on the bedside table, said Dr. Karima Lelak, an emergency physician at Michigan Children’s Hospital and lead author of the study. published on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “But it’s really a drug that has the potential to cause harm and needs to be put in the first aid kit,” Lelak said.
WHAT IS MELATONIN?
Melatonin is a hormone that helps control the body’s sleep cycle. It has become an over-the-counter sleeping aid, with sales up 150% between 2016 and 2020, the authors said.
In the US, melatonin is sold as a supplement, not regulated as a drug. Because melatonin is unregulated, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not monitor the purity of ingredients or the accuracy of dosing statements.
Other researchers have found that what is on the label may not match what is actually on the bottle, and some countries have banned the sale of over-the-counter melatonin.
HOW ARE MELATONIN OVERDOSES TREATED?
Many people can tolerate even relatively large doses of melatonin without significant harm, experts say. But there is no antidote to an overdose. In cases where a child accidentally ingests melatonin, experts often ask a trusted adult to monitor them at home.
But slow breathing or other worrying signs may mean the child needs to be taken to a hospital.
WHAT HAVE THE RESEARCHERS FOUND?
Lelak and colleagues looked at reports at poison control centers between 2012 and 2021, counting more than 260,000 calls about children taking too much melatonin. They accounted for 0.6% of all poison control calls in 2012 and about 5% in 2021.
In approximately 83% of these calls, children showed no symptoms. But other children vomited, had shortness of breath, or had other symptoms. During the 10 years studied, more than 4,000 children were hospitalized, five had to be put in machines to help them breathe and two, both under the age of 2, died.
Most of the hospitalized children were teenagers, and many of them were believed to be suicide attempts.
WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE PANDEMIC?
Reported melatonin poisoning has been on the rise for at least a decade, but the biggest increases came after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in 2020. Between 2019 and 2020, the count skyrocketed by 38 %.
There may be several reasons, Lelak said. Due to confinement and e-learning, more children were at home all day, which means there were more opportunities for children to access melatonin. In addition, the pandemic caused stress and anxiety that disturbed sleep, which may have led more families to consider melatonin.
“The children were upset to be at home, the teenagers were locked up by friends. And in addition to everything that everyone looks at the screens for hours and hours a day, “Lelak said.
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The Associated Press Department of Health and Science is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.