Role of Melatonin in Body Weight: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

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#body-weight #humans #melatonin #randomized-controlled-trials-as-topic

Role of Melatonin in Body Weight: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Mostafavi et al., 2017 | Curr Pharm Des | Meta Analysis

Citation

Mostafavi Seyed-Ali, Akhondzadeh Shahin, ... Keshavarz Seyed Ali. Role of Melatonin in Body Weight: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Curr Pharm Des. 2017;23(23):3445-3452. doi:10.2174/1381612822666161129145618

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Some trials on animals and human claim that melatonin can influence body weight. So we conducted a systematic review of controlled trials of melatonin effects on weight of human subjects. METHODS: First we performed a systematic and comprehensive search in June 2015 on MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, Google scholar, hand searching in key journals, the list of references of selected articles and gray literature. RESULTS: We included 7 clinical trials with a total of 244 patients. All studies were parallel clinical trials conducted at the clinic. Evaluating standardized mean difference (SMD) using Cohen's method shows that none of the included studies have found a strong and significant effect of melatonin on body weight. However, some have reported decreasing or increasing effect of melatonin on body weight. We pooled SMDs using random effects (DerSimonian and Laird). Pooled SMD was still not significant SMD (95% CI) = 0.09(-0.17-0.34), with lack of heterogeneity I2=0.0%, p=0.66. CONCLUSION: We concluded that once the standard treatment had increasing effect on body weight, melatonin could be able to slightly diminish this effect and vice versa. Subgroup analysis showed that melatonin was more effective in child and adolescents. According to the results hypothesis of the buffering role of melatonin on body weight fluctuations can be proposed.

Key Findings

We included 7 clinical trials with a total of 244 patients. All studies were parallel clinical trials conducted at the clinic. Evaluating standardized mean difference (SMD) using Cohen's method shows that none of the included studies have found a strong and significant effect of melatonin on body weight. However, some have reported decreasing or increasing effect of melatonin on body weight. We pooled SMDs using random effects (DerSimonian and Laird). Pooled SMD was still not significant SMD (95

Outcomes Measured

  • Requires manual extraction

Population

Field Value
Population See abstract
Sample Size 244
Age Range See abstract
Condition See abstract

MeSH Terms

  • Body Weight
  • Humans
  • Melatonin
  • Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic

Evidence Classification

  • Level: Meta Analysis
  • Publication Types: Journal Article, Meta-Analysis, Systematic Review
  • Vertical: melatonin

Provenance

Source extracted via PubMed E-utilities API on 2026-04-09