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The Relationship Between Chronic Fatigue, Sleep quality, and Melatonin Levels in Sjogren's Syndrome

O. Karhan, A. Berkant Avci, İkbal Özen Kucukcetin, V. Yazısız

Harran üniversitesi tıp fakültesi dergisi, 2025

116 participants

Abstract

Background: Primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) is a systemic autoimmune disease and majority of pa-tients have fatigue and insomnia. Melatonin has many functions in addition to improving sleep quality and duration.The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between fatigue and insomnia, and the association of melatonin levels with fatigue and insomnia in patients with pSS.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional cohort study included 116 patients and 27 healthy con-trols. Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) and SF-36 questionnaires were ob-tained from patients. Melatonin was measured by ELISA from the patients' serum.

Results: Patients with pSS exhibited greater fatigue compared to the control group, additionally, pa-tients with somnolence exhibited higher levels of fatigue compared to those without somnolence. The median melatonin level was 239 ng/L (189-460) in patients with fatigue and 266 ng/L (219-552) in patients without fatigue (p=0.11). Patients with and without daytime sleepiness had similar melatonin levels, too. The median melatonin level was 429 ng/L (268-774) in healthy controls compared to 254 ng/L (197-491) in patients with PSS (p=0.0098) The quality of life, as measured by the SF-36, was signif-icantly worse in patients with fatigue across all subgroups compared to those without fatigue. There was no correlation between melatonin levels and the subparameters of the SF-36.

Conclusions: Fatigue had a negative impact on both…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a cross-sectional, done in people. Its evidence level is 4 of 5 (Low · observational). Observational designs can show an association but not prove cause. Reported size: 116 participants or records.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

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