Page 7 - JCBP-1-2

Journal of Clinical and

Basic Psychosomatics

REVİEW ARTICLE
Use of melatonin for the treatment of dementia:

Addressing core symptoms and behavioral
challenges

1,2
Sano Masahiro , Kohji Fukunaga , and Ichiro Kawahata *
1
1
1 Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan
2 BRI Pharma Inc., Sendai, 982-0804, Japan

Abstract
Dementia mainly includes Alzheimer’s disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies
(DLB), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and vascular dementia (VaD). In addition
to cognitive impairment, patients often suffer from behavioral and psychological
symptoms of dementia (BPSD). Melatonin administration has emerged as a promising
therapeutic strategy with potential benefits for BPSD. This review focuses on the
therapeutic effects of melatonin on the core symptoms of dementia and BPSD.
Specifically, the impact of melatonin on memory impairment, sleep disturbances,
anxiety, depression, delusions, and hallucinations is reviewed. The melatonin’s role in
amyloid-β, synuclein aggregation, reactive oxygen species, and dementia subtypes
are discussed. We aim to provide an up-to-date review of the emerging application
of melatonin; thus, dementia patient care and social welfare can be improved by the
*Corresponding author: appropriate usage of this medication.
Ichiro Kawahata
(kawahata@tohoku.ac.jp)
Citation: Masahiro S, Fukunaga K, Keywords: Dementia; Melatonin; Calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase II; Extracellular
and Kawahata I, 2023, Use signal-regulated kinase; Dopamine; Fatty acid-binding protein
of melatonin for the treatment
of dementia: Addressing core
symptoms and behavioral
challenges. J Clin Basic
Psychosom, 1(2): 1174. 1. Introduction
https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.1174
Dementia is a disease in which brain function loss occurs due to injuries and diseases
Received: June 28, 2023
to the brain. It is a general term for diseases related to cognitive impairment and the
Accepted: August 17, 2023 resulting living difficulties. Alzheimer’s disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies
Published Online: September 13, (DLB), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and vascular dementia (VaD) are common
2023 types of dementia. Dementia also includes alcohol-related disorders and Creutzfeldt-
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s). Jakob disease, related to abnormal prion proteins.
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the AD causes apathy, depression, and mild dementia in the early stages, and AD
Creative Commons Attribution progression leads to severe memory impairment and brain atrophy due to neuronal cell
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, loss. Although the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood, the theory known
provided the original work is as the “amyloid hypothesis” is reasonably well-supported. This theory suggests that the
properly cited. aggregation and accumulation of insoluble amyloid-β and oligomerization of soluble
Publisher’s Note: AccScience amyloid-β lead to abnormal tau phosphorylation, aggregation, and oligomerization.
Publishing remains neutral with As a result, neuronal functioning is impaired, which leads to neuronal cell death and
regard to jurisdictional claims in [1]
published maps and institutional subsequent inflammation, causing the death of surrounding neurons . At present,
affiliations. N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists and cholinesterase inhibitors

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.1174