Transdermal Melatonin Delivery System for Insomnia Treatment

Melatonin, a pineal gland hormone can play an important role on circadian rhythms and worked as an internal sleep facilitator in human. Recently, melatonin was used as a drug for treatment of insomnia. The transdermal drug delivery is a good alternative for melatonin delivery because of its variable oral absorption, short half-life, highly first pass metabolism, and a favorable partition coefficient. Recently, transdermal delivery of melatonin is prepared as solutions, patches, nanovesicles and nanoparticles, and hydrogels. Many studies are successful in development and evaluation of transdermal melatonin delivery system with high drug released, high drug permeated, and high permeation rate with short lag time. Furthermore, vehicles and penetration enhancers have a major effect on melatonin permeation via the skin. Some clinical trials that studied the effectiveness of transdermal melatonin patch showed that the patch can increase plasma melatonin level for an extended duration. However, these clinical trials were performed in few numbers of subjects, thus the study in a larger number of subject is still necessary. In conclusion, transdermal melatonin delivery may be a more effective way in the treatment of insomnia.