Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatr. Aug 19, 2021; 11(8): 463-476
Published online Aug 19, 2021. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v11.i8.463
Therapeutic use of melatonin in schizophrenia: A systematic review
Cathy Duan, Zoe M Jenkins, David Castle
Cathy Duan, Zoe M Jenkins, David Castle, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Parkville 3010, VIC, Australia
Zoe M Jenkins, David Castle, Mental Health Service, St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne 3065, VIC, Australia
David Castle, Centre for Complex Interventions, Centre for Addictions and Mental Health, Toronto ON M6J 1H4, Canada
David Castle, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto ON M5S, Canada
Author contributions: Duan C and Castle D designed the research; Duan C performed the search; Duan C and Jenkins ZM extracted the data and wrote the paper; Castle D supervised the paper; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zoe M Jenkins, BSc, Research Fellow, Mental Health Service, St. Vincent's Hospital, 46 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne 3065, VIC, Australia. zoe.jenkins@svha.org.au
Received: February 24, 2021
Peer-review started: February 24, 2021
First decision: July 4, 2021
Revised: July 12, 2021
Accepted: July 29, 2021
Article in press: July 29, 2021
Published online: August 19, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: This systematic review synthesized the results of clinical trials that have investigated the effect of exogenous melatonin as adjunctive therapy for patients with schizophrenia. Some positive outcomes were demonstrated for sleep improvement and attenuating antipsychotic-induced metabolic side effects. Future investigations are required to determine differential effects of melatonin when used in conjunction with a range of antipsychotic medications.