ReviewLife sciences2020
COVID-19: Melatonin as a potential adjuvant treatment.
Review in Life sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 323 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial of the Efficacy of Melatonin in the Prophylaxis of SARS-coronavirus-2 Infection Among High Risk Contacts.
A Pilot Placebo-controlled Randomized Double-blind Trial of Melatonin in Outpatients With COVID-19 Infection
A Pilot Placebo-controlled Randomized Double-blind Trial of Melatonin in Outpatients With COVID-19 Infection
Who cites it
323 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 633 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effect of antidepressants on the severity of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A systematic review of COVID-19 and obstructive sleep apnoea.Sleep medicine reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Oral Melatonin in Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19: A Quasi-Experimental Pragmatic Trial.Journal of medical virology · 2026Trial
- Impact of Treatment with Antioxidants as an Adjuvant to Standard Therapy in Patients with Septic Shock: Analysis of the Correlation between Cytokine Storm and Oxidative Stress and Therapeutic Effects.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Trial
- Efficacy and safety of oral melatonin in patients with severe COVID-19: a randomized controlled trial.Inflammopharmacology · 2023Trial
- The Effect of Melatonin on Thrombosis, Sepsis and Mortality Rate in COVID-19 Patients.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2022Trial
- Melatonin effects on sleep quality and outcomes of COVID-19 patients: An open-label, randomized, controlled trial.Journal of medical virology · 2022Trial
- Efficacy of a Low Dose of Melatonin as an Adjunctive Therapy in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19: A Randomized, Double-blind Clinical Trial.Archives of medical research · 2022Trial
- Exploring the immune-modulatory role of melatonin in head kidney and spleen cells of freshwater snakehead teleost, Channa punctatus.Journal of fish biology · 2026Article
- Circadian considerations in antimicrobials.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Review
- Article
- The Role of Immunosenescence and Inflammaging in the Susceptibility of Older Adults to SARS-CoV-2 Infection.Current pharmaceutical biotechnology · 2026Review
- The dynamic interplay of M1/M2-like macrophages and adenosine deaminase activity modulates COVID-19 severity.Open medicine (Warsaw, Poland) · 2026Article
- Pathways in the brain, heart and lung influenced by SARS-CoV-2 NSP6 and SARS-CoV-2 regulated miRNAs: an in silico study hinting cancer incidence.Cardio-oncology (London, England) · 2025Article
- Clinical Evaluation of Oxidative Stress Markers in Patients with Long COVID During the Omicron Phase in Japan.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Metabolic Reprogramming in Respiratory Viral Infections: A Focus on SARS-CoV-2, Influenza, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus.Biomolecules · 2025Review
- Recent Advances in Nanomaterials Based Optical Sensors for the Detection of Melatonin and Serotonin.Journal of fluorescence · 2025Review
- Review
- Targeting SIRT1: A Potential Strategy for Combating Severe COVID-19.BioMed research international · 2025Review
263 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This article summarizes the likely benefits of melatonin in the attenuation of COVID-19 based on its putative pathogenesis. The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has become a pandemic with tens of thousands of infected patients. Based on clinical features, pathology, the pathogenesis of acute respiratory disorder induced by either highly homogenous coronaviruses or other pathogens, the evidence suggests that excessive inflammation, oxidation, and an exaggerated immune response very likely contribute to COVID-19 pathology. This leads to a cytokine storm and subsequent progression to acute lung injury (ALI)/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and often death. Melatonin, a well-known anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative molecule, is protective against ALI/ARDS caused by viral and other pathogens. Melatonin is effective in critical care patients by reducing vessel permeability, anxiety, sedation use, and improving sleeping quality, which might also be beneficial for better clinical outcomes for COVID-19 patients. Notably, melatonin has a high safety profile. There is significant data showing that melatonin limits virus-related diseases and would also likely be beneficial in COVID-19 patients. Additional experiments and clinical studies are required to confirm this speculation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.