Research had shown that melatonin improves survival in COVID-19 patients who require intubation and mechanical ventilation. Less common and more severe symptoms are influenced by the presence of comorbidities. More severe symptoms include respiratory distress requiring endotracheal intubation. In a retrospective study involving 189,987 patients, survival analysis was conducted to determine whether exposure to melatonin following intubation decreased mortality.
The researchers identified 948 episodes of intubation in 791 patients with COVID-19 and 3497 intubations across 2981 patient who did not have COVID-19. A multivariate analysis accounting for clinical diagnoses and demographic factors revealed that melatonin exposure following intubation was associated with positive survival outcome among COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients. Melatonin exposure improved outcomes in COVID-19 patients who were mechanically ventilated but not in mechanically ventilated non-COVID-19 patients. The possible mechanism of melatonin is that it may target SARS-CoV-2 mediated inflammation in severe cases.
Ref link: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.15.20213546v1