A Meta-analysis On The Treatment Of Sleep Disorders In Alzheimer’s Disease With Exogenous Melatonin

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of exogenous melatonin in the treatment of sleep disorders in Alzheimer’s disease(AD).Methods: RCT of AD treated with exogenous melatonin were collected by computer retrieval from Pubmed,EMbase,Cochrane database,CNKI,VIP Chinese journal database and wanfang database.The retrieval time was from database establishment to January 31,2019.Two researchers used the Cochrane systematic evaluation method to screen,evaluate quality and extract data,and RevMan5.3 software was used for Meta-analysis.Results: Eight studies(n=471)were identified and analyzed.The results of the Meta-analysis showed that the treatment with exogenous melatonin could prolong the total nocturnal sleep time(TNST)in patients with sleep disorders in AD(MD=12.07,95%CI: 0.31-23.83,p=0.04),but there was no significant improvement in sleep efficiency(MD=0.30,95% CI:-0.32-0.91,p=0.34;MD=-1.17,95% CI:-2.37-0.04,p=0.06)and cognitive function(MD=0.30,95% CI:-0.32-0.91,p=0.34;MD=-1.17,95% CI:-2.37-0.04,p=0.06).However,the incidence of adverse reactions was similar to that of placebo(OR=1.67,95% CI: 0.98-2.83,p=0.06).Conclusions: This Meta-analysis provides some evidence that exogenous melatonin is effective and safe in the treatment of sleep disorders in AD,and has some effect on the improvement of sleep symptoms in AD patients.Short observation time did not improve their cognitive function.