Papers/PMID:41592826
Effect of melatonin versus placebo for the prevention of delirium among medically hospitalised older patients: a double-blinded randomised controlled trial (project RESTORE).
BMJ open2026The record
2 findings drawn from this paper, on 1 compound across 2 endpoints, 2 of them null.
What it reported
How to read these marksEvery finding here is a null result.
What did not
2 findings
melatonin — no detected effect on total sleep time
LikelyGrade B, Likely. Human evidence, limited replication or design limits.FindingNull resultreplicated ×2“The median in-hospital sleep duration was 6.0 hours (IQR: 5.0–6.2), with slightly longer duration in the melatonin group (6.0 (5.3–6.3) vs 5.8 (5.0–6.0), p=0.136), though this difference was not statistically significant.”
Quoted verbatim from Effect of melatonin versus placebo for the prevention of delirium among medically hospitalised older patients: a double-blinded randomised controlled trial (project RESTORE).. - Study
- RCT
- Duration
- 5 days
- Dose
- 5 mg or 8 mg oral melatonin nightly for up to 5 days (arms pooled)
- Population
- medically hospitalised patients aged 65 years and over; secondary endpoint, ITT; sleep duration from patient report and nursing observation, not polysomnography
melatonin — no detected effect on serious adverse event incidence
LikelyGrade B, Likely. Human evidence, limited replication or design limits.FindingNull result“In terms of safety, no serious adverse events were reported with either melatonin or placebo.”
Quoted verbatim from Effect of melatonin versus placebo for the prevention of delirium among medically hospitalised older patients: a double-blinded randomised controlled trial (project RESTORE).. - Study
- RCT
- Duration
- 5 days
- Dose
- 5 mg or 8 mg oral melatonin nightly for up to 5 days (arms pooled)
- Population
- medically hospitalised patients aged 65 years and over; safety endpoint, ITT