A Preliminary Study of Melatonin in Irritable Bowel Syndrome

• DOI: 10.1097/mcg.0b013e31802df84c
• Publication Date: 2006-12-21T09:02:54Z
• Authors: Lekha Saha; Samir Malhotra; Surinder Rana; Deepak Bhasin; Promila Pandhi
• Keywords: Adult; Male; 0303 health sciences; Adolescent; Free Radical Scavengers; Middle Aged; 3. Good health; Irritable Bowel Syndrome; 03 medical and health sciences; Treatment Outcome; Double-Blind Method; Humans; Female; Aged; Follow-Up Studies; Melatonin

Melatonin is involved in the regulation of gut motility and sensation. We aimed to determine if melatonin was effective in improving bowel symptoms, extracolonic symptoms, and quality of life (QOL) in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients.Eighteen patients (aged 18 to 65 y; 6 females) were randomly assigned to receive either melatonin 3 mg (n=9) or matching placebo (n=9) at bed time for 8 weeks. The overall IBS scores, extracolonic IBS scores, QOL scores were assessed at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks during treatment and at 16, 24, and 48 weeks during follow up.Compared with placebo, melatonin taken for 8 weeks significantly improved overall IBS score (45% vs. 16.66%, P<0.05). The posttreatment overall extracolonic IBS score was significantly lower (49.16% to 13.88%, P<0.05) when compared with placebo group. The overall improvement in QOL score was 43.63% in melatonin group and 14.64% in placebo group that is statistically significant.The result of this study showed that melatonin has some beneficial role in IBS. Further studies using large number of patients may provide a definite answer.