ArticleEuropean child & adolescent psychiatry2023
Melatonin use among children, adolescents, and young adults: a Danish nationwide drug utilization study.
Article in European child & adolescent psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Melatonin Use in Young Children: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2026Pooled it
- Article
- Article
- Exploring nationwide patterns of sleep problems from late adolescence to adulthood using machine learning.Science advances · 2025Article
- Validated UHPLC Methods for Melatonin Quantification Reveal Regulatory Violations in EU Online Dietary Supplements Commerce.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Prescription drug use in Danish children and adolescents 2005-2023.European journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Prevalence and patterns of sleep-related melatonin usage among adults in Saudi Arabia: A self-reported cross-sectional national study.Saudi pharmaceutical journal : SPJ : the official publication of the Saudi Pharmaceutical Society · 2024Article
- Morbidity among Adolescent Hypnotic Drug Users in Norway: An Observational Population-Based Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Where do we look for the next breakthrough in sleep research?BMC neurology · 2023Article
- The short-term and long-term adverse effects of melatonin treatment in children and adolescents: a systematic review and GRADE assessment.EClinicalMedicine · 2023Article
- Use of melatonin for children and adolescents with chronic insomnia attributable to disorders beyond indication: a systematic review, meta-analysis and clinical recommendation.EClinicalMedicine · 2023Article
- Use of melatonin in children and adolescents with idiopathic chronic insomnia: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and clinical recommendation.EClinicalMedicine · 2023Article
- Melatonin and vitamin D, two sides of the same coin, better to land on its edge to improve multiple sclerosis.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Review
- Melatonin Prescription in Children and Adolescents in Relation to Body Weight and Age.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- [Appropriate Use and Abuse of Sedative-Hypnotic Drugs].Sichuan da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Sichuan University. Medical science edition · 2023Review
- Melatonin Treatment for Pediatric Patients with Insomnia: Is There a Place for It?Nature and science of sleep · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
We aimed to provide a detailed description of the use of melatonin in Danish children, adolescents, and young adults during 2012-2019. We identified melatonin users 0-24 years of age (n = 43,652; median age 16 years) via the Danish nationwide health registers. Melatonin is a prescription drug in Denmark. The incidence of melatonin use increased from 2.4 to 3.9/1000 person-years during 2012 to 2019. Among 6,557 incident users in 2019, 53% filled only a single prescription within the first 6 months. Long-term use was most common among the younger age groups, with 17% of 5-9-year-olds and 14% of 10-13-year-olds being in continued treatment (no treatment breaks) 12 months after their first melatonin prescription. Disregarding treatment breaks, 3 in 10 were using melatonin 12 months after their first melatonin prescription and this proportion was also highest among 5-9-year-olds (63%) and 10-13-year-olds (51%). Psychopathology was common among melatonin users with 75% registered with either a psychiatric disorder diagnosis (54%), a filled prescription for another psychotropic (58%), or a contact to a private practice psychiatrist (15%) within ± 12 months of treatment initiation. General practitioners authorized melatonin prescriptions to almost half of all new users (48%), while psychiatric specialists authorized 37% of first prescriptions. In conclusion, the incidence of melatonin use increased in Denmark from 2012 to 2019. A substantial proportion of users had concurrent psychopathology most likely explaining their use of melatonin. Long-term melatonin use was more common among the youngest age groups, which should be a focus of interest due to limited safety data.
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Registered trials
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