Cardinali, Daniel P, Brown, Gregory M, Pandi-Perumal, Seithikurippu R · Biomolecules · 2022 · DOI
This review examines whether melatonin, a natural hormone that regulates sleep, might help people with long COVID who experience symptoms similar to ME/CFS—such as brain fog, fatigue, and muscle pain. Melatonin has several properties that could potentially help: it reduces inflammation, fights harmful molecules in the body, supports immune function, and protects nerve cells. The authors suggest melatonin might be worth studying further as a treatment for the lingering cognitive and pain symptoms some long COVID patients experience.
ME/CFS patients and those with long COVID experiencing brain fog and pain represent a significant clinical burden with limited treatment options. This review provides a theoretical framework for investigating melatonin as a potential therapeutic agent, identifying mechanisms that could address core ME/CFS symptoms. It may encourage clinical researchers to pursue rigorous trials testing melatonin's efficacy in post-viral fatigue syndromes.
This review does not provide clinical evidence that melatonin effectively treats long COVID or ME/CFS symptoms—it is a theoretical analysis based on melatonin's known biochemical properties, not empirical patient outcome data. It does not establish optimal dosing, safety profiles, or efficacy compared to other treatments in these populations. The mechanistic reasoning presented does not prove that melatonin's benefits in other conditions would translate to treating ME/CFS-like long COVID.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
Spotted an error in this entry? Report it →