SynthesisJournal of medical virology2022
Efficacy of melatonin in the treatment of patients with COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Synthesis in Journal of medical virology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 2 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- Benefits of melatonin on mortality in severe-to-critical COVID-19 patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Clinics (Sao Paulo, Brazil) · 2025Pooled it
- The clinical efficacy of melatonin in the treatment of patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Oral Melatonin in Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19: A Quasi-Experimental Pragmatic Trial.Journal of medical virology · 2026Trial
- Melatonin beyond chronobiology: integrating pharmacokinetics, dose-exposure forecasting, and clinical evidence.Molecular biology reports · 2026Review
- High-Dose Intravenous Vitamin C in Critical Illness: A Translational Exposure-Response Framework for Biomarker-Guided Precision Therapy.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- NLR Inflammasomes in Viral Infections: From Molecular Mechanisms to Therapeutic Interventions.Viruses · 2026Review
- Review
- Significance of Melatonin in the Regulation of Circadian Rhythms and Disease Management.Molecular neurobiology · 2024Review
- Why Certain Repurposed Drugs Are Unlikely to Be Effective Antivirals to Treat SARS-CoV-2 Infections.Viruses · 2024Article
- The neurobiology of SARS-CoV-2 infection.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2024Review
- Indole-Based Compounds as Potential Drug Candidates for SARS-CoV-2.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Plausibility of natural immunomodulators in the treatment of COVID-19-A comprehensive analysis and future recommendations.Heliyon · 2023Review
- Strategies for the Management of Spike Protein-Related Pathology.Microorganisms · 2023Review
- Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in Elderly Patients with COVID-19: Potential of Melatonin Treatment.Viruses · 2023Review
- Mechanism of Melatonin Metabolism by CYP1A1: What Determines the Bifurcation Pathways of Hydroxylation versus Deformylation?The journal of physical chemistry. B · 2022Article
- The role of melatonin as an adjuvant in the treatment of COVID-19: A systematic review.Heliyon · 2022Review
- Gut-brain communication in COVID-19: molecular mechanisms, mediators, biomarkers, and therapeutics.Expert review of clinical immunology · 2022Article
- The potential role of ischaemia-reperfusion injury in chronic, relapsing diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Long COVID, and ME/CFS: evidence, mechanisms, and therapeutic implications.The Biochemical journal · 2022Review
- Melatonin use for SARS-CoV-2 infection: Time to diversify the treatment portfolio.Journal of medical virology · 2022Article
- Unbalanced IDO1/IDO2 Endothelial Expression and Skewed Keynurenine Pathway in the Pathogenesis of COVID-19 and Post-COVID-19 Pneumonia.Biomedicines · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This study investigated the effect of melatonin on clinical outcomes in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We searched PubMed, the Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, Ovid MEDLINE, and Clinicaltrials.gov for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published before September 11, 2021. Only RCTs that compared the clinical efficacy of melatonin with a placebo in the treatment of patients with COVID-19 were included. The primary outcome measure was the clinical recovery rate. We included three RCTs in this meta-analysis. Melatonin 3 mg three times daily was administered in one RCT, and 3 or 6 mg daily before bedtime in the other two trials. Treatment duration was 14 days in two RCTs and 7 days in one trial. The clinical recovery rates were 94.2% (81/86) and 82.4% (70/85) in the melatonin and control groups, respectively. Overall, patients receiving melatonin had a higher clinical recovery rate than did the controls (odds ratio [OR]: 3.67; 95% CI: 1.21-11.12; I
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.