Role of melatonin in the management of substance addiction: a systematic review.

Recent evidence links melatonin hormone and its receptor to the etiology and behavioral manifestation of addiction. The role of exogenous melatonin in addiction treatment is still inconsistent and unclear. The present study aimed to review the literature on randomized clinical trials that evaluated the role of melatonin supplementation, compared to placebo, in the treatment of various substance addictions. The literature searches of relevant articles published in the English language in MEDLINE and Google Scholar databases were performed from inception up to May 2021. We included only randomized clinical trials investigating the effect of melatonin treatment, compared to placebo, on substance addiction-related parameters. Non-randomized clinical trials, observation studies, and animal studies were excluded. The risk of bias-2 was used to assess the quality of the studies. Of 537 articles, 12 randomized control trials (RCT) met our inclusion criteria. Studies have been conducted on substances of addiction including benzodiazepine (BZD), alcohol, nicotine, and opioids. Our results indicated that melatonin treatment had mixed results in improving sleep quality and was not found beneficial in BDZ cessation/discontinuation rate among patients with BDZ dependence. Sleep quality and mental health had improved by melatonin supplements in opioid addiction. In nicotine addiction, melatonin treatment showed effectiveness only on mood changes but not in performance tests. In patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD), melatonin treatment did not show any improvement in sleep quality. We found that the use of exogenous melatonin in substance addiction has mixed results which do not provide sufficient evidence, relative to randomized clinical trials, to establish its role

Evaluating Interference of Lipemia on Routine Clinical Biochemical Tests

Objective Lipemia is an important cause of preanalytical errors in laboratory results. They affect the specimen integrity and trustworthiness of laboratory results. The present study was to assess the impact of lipemia on routine clinical chemistry analytes. Methods Anonymous leftover serum samples with normal levels of routine biochemical parameters were pooled. Twenty such pooled serum samples were used for the study. The samples were spiked with commercially available intralipid solution (20%) to produce lipemic concentrations of 0, 400 (mild, 20 μL), 1,000 (moderate, 50 μL), and 2,000 mg/dL (severe, 100 μL). Glucose, renal function test, electrolytes, and liver function test were estimated in all the samples. Baseline data without the effect of interference was considered as true value and percentage bias for the spiked samples was calculated. Interference was considered significant if the interference bias percentage exceeded 10%. Result Parameters like glucose, urea, creatinine, direct bilirubin, sodium, potassium, and chloride showed negative interference at mild and moderate lipemic concentration and positive interference at severe lipemic concentration. Parameters like aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT) showed negative interference at mild and positive interference at moderate and severe lipemic concentration. Whereas uric acid, total protein, albumin, total bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, gamma-glutamyl transferase, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous showed positive interference at all concentrations. Significant interference (> 10%) was shown for magnesium (mild lipemia), albumin, direct bilirubin, ALT, and AST at moderate lipemic concentration. All parameters showed significant interference at severe lipemic concentration. Conclusion All the study parameters are affected by lipemic interference at varying levels. Laboratory-specific data regarding lipemic interference at various concentrations on the clinical biochemistry parameters is needed

Association Between Adiponectin and Insulin Resistance in Diabetic Urolithiasis

Objectives: The prevalence of urolithiasis is increasing worldwide. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is characterized by insulin resistance, which increases the risk of kidney stone formation. Adiponectin is an insulin-sensitizing and anti-inflammatory cytokine, which is known to improve glucose tolerance and insulin resistance in humans. The association of insulin and adiponectin with kidney stones is not clear. Hence, the present study aim to assess the serum levels of adiponectin and insulin resistance in DM patients with urolithiasis in comparison to those without. Methods: This study involved two groups, group A consisted of 30 patients with DM and urolithiasis, and group B consisted of 30 patients with DM but without urolithiasis (control group). Biochemical parameters studied were serum adiponectin, insulin, glucose, urea, creatinine, and 24 hours urinary calcium and phosphate. Results: The serum adiponectin level was significantly increased in the diabetic urolithiasis cases (group A) compared to the control group (group B). The levels of 24 hours urine calcium and phosphorus were also significantly increased in group A. There was no significant difference in serum insulin and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance between the two groups. A negative correlation was seen between serum adiponectin and insulin among the cases (r = -0.368 and p = 0.045). Conclusions: We found that serum adiponectin levels are increased in patients with DM and urolithiasis