Abstract
PURPOSE: Numerous reports that secretion of the putative sleep-promoting hormone melatonin
declines with age have led to suggestions that melatonin replacement therapy be used
to treat sleep problems in older patients. We sought to reassess whether the endogenous
circadian rhythm of plasma melatonin concentration changes with age in healthy drug-free
adults.
METHODS: We analyzed the amplitude of plasma melatonin profiles during a constant
routine in 34 healthy drug-free older subjects (20 women and 14 men, aged 65 to 81
years) and compared them with 98 healthy drug-free young men (aged 18 to 30 years).
RESULTS: We could detect no significant difference between a healthy and drug-free
group of older men and women as compared to one of young men in the endogenous circadian
amplitude of the plasma melatonin rhythm, as described by mean 24-hour average melatonin
concentration (70 pmol/liter vs 73 pmol/liter, P = 0.97), or the duration (9.3 hours vs 9.1 hours, P = 0.43), mean (162 pmol/liter vs 161 pmol/liter, P = 0.63), or integrated area (85,800 pmol × min/liter vs 86,700 pmol × min/liter,
P = 0.66) of the nocturnal peak of plasma melatonin.
CONCLUSION: These results do not support the hypothesis that reduction of plasma melatonin
concentration is a general characteristic of healthy aging. Should melatonin replacement
therapy or melatonin supplementation prove to be clinically useful, we recommend that
an assessment of endogenous melatonin be carried out before such treatment is used
in older patients.
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: August 16, 2004
Accepted:
July 19,
1999
Received in revised form:
July 19,
1999
Received:
December 7,
1998
Footnotes
☆Supported in part by grants from the National Institute on Aging (P01-AG-09975; R01-AG06072), the National Institute of Mental Health (R01-MH-45130), a General Clinical Research Center grant from the National Center for Research Resources (M01-RR02635), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NAG 5–3952; NAG W-4033).
Identification
Copyright
© 1999 Excerpta Medica Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
