February 09, 2023
In its February edition, the independent journal Prescrire relays alarming figures: those of the poison control centers of the United States, which have identified numerous cases of melatonin poisoning in children and adolescents. In ten years, these cases have increased sixfold.
More than 260,000 cases of melatonin ingestion, intentional or accidental. This is the report drawn up by the American poison control centers, for a period ranging from 2012 to 2021, and concerning only children and adolescents under the age of 19. Figures sufficiently worrying for the magazine Prescrire, which regularly warns of the adverse effects of melatonin, to choose to echo them in its February edition.
But what is melatonin? In its natural version, it is perfectly harmless: it is in fact a hormone secreted during the night, essential for our sleep because it regulates our biological clock and informs our body of the alternation between day and night. It is in its synthetic version that it can prove to be at risk.
Why is it potentially dangerous? This synthetic version is found in many food supplements supposed to promote sleep or reduce the effects of jet lag. Accidental in 95% of the 260,000 cases reported to US poison control centers between 2012 and 2021, ingestion of synthetic melatonin caused symptoms, “especially digestive, cardiovascular and neuropsychic” in 17% of reported children. About 5,000 of them had to be hospitalized in conditions considered serious and two children under the age of two died in hospital. About eight out of ten reports involved children under the age of five.
And in France ? Synthetic melatonin has been closely monitored for a long time by the National Health Security Agency (ANSES) and the National Medicines Security Agency (ANSM). Between them, the agencies have identified no less than 300 adverse effects, including abdominal pain, rashes, vomiting, headaches, irritability… This is why, in 2018, ANSES called for better consumer information, and recommended to many categories of the population not to consume melatonin: pregnant and breastfeeding women, people suffering from inflammatory or autoimmune diseases, epilepsy, asthma, and children and adolescents.
Are these recommendations followed? The General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF) recently took an interest in the subject, given the explosion in the number of over-the-counter food supplements or medicines containing melatonin: 700 new references between 2019 and 2021! If, overall, the content announced on the label is consistent with the actual content, the information to consumers potentially at risk is insufficient, even contradictory “with the recommendations of ANSES. This is the case, for example, of food supplements whose label indicates that they can be consumed by children”. The DGCCRF has issued several warnings for manufacturers.
To know : For melatonin as for all food supplements, ask your doctor to find out if you are among those at risk. And keep products containing melatonin out of reach of children.
