Outcomes in intensive care.

into a state akin to the seasonal anoestrus of animals and, as melatonin can suppress the growth of human breast cancer cell lines in vitro, protect them from breast cancer at the same time.5Presumably the pill must be taken in the evening because of the profound hypnotic effects of such a massive dose of melatonin.The induction of sleepiness alone could make it a very effective contraceptive.Further work is under way to isolate and characterise melatonin's receptor in the hope of designing synthetic agonists and antagonists.A simple derivative of tryptophan and serotonin, melatonin is cheap enough to make, but unfortunately it will still cost millions of dollars to complete the acute and chronic toxicity tests required by drug regulatory authorities.The evidence that taking melatonin benefits jet lagged travellers, shift workers, blind people, and elderly people with sleep disturbances becomes stronger by the day.' 25 Let's hope that we will soon see it on the market.