Table 1. Design and patient characteristics for studies included in the meta analysis.
| source | Sample size methylphenidate placebo | sex (male) | mean age (year) | duration of treatment (week) | maximum dosage (mg/d) | type of cancer | Outcomes | baseline findings (mean ± SD, Methylphenidate/ placebo) | country | study design | Jadad score | |
| Bruera et al, 2006 | 52 | 53 | 37% | 57 | 1 | 20 | Mixed tumor | Fatigue | FACT-F: 16.87±7.96/17.04±7.98 | USA | parallel | 5 |
| Depression | ESAS-D: 3.4±2.9 * | |||||||||||
| Butler et al, 2007 | 20 | 21 | 54% | 56 | 4 | 30 | Primary brain tumor | Fatigue | FACT-F: 34.7±8.04/33.3±12.92 | USA | parallel | 4 |
| Depression | CESD: 14.6±8.62* | |||||||||||
| Cognition | MMSE: 27.2±2.92/25.6±3.39 | |||||||||||
| Lower et al, 2009 | 54 | 69 | 10% | 53 | 8 | 28 | Mixed tumor | Fatigue | FACT-F: 30.9±10.2/30.0±10.1 | USA | parallel | 5 |
| Depression | BDI-II:10.8±4.6/10.9±4.6 | |||||||||||
| Cognition | MMSE: 28.7±1.7/28.8±1.5 | |||||||||||
| HSCS:35.9±17.0/37.1±18.1 | ||||||||||||
| Moraska et al, 2010 | 62 | 63 | 40% | 60 | 4 | 54 | Mixed tumor | Fatigue | BFI: 3.36±1.54/3.4±1.72 | USA | parallel | 5 |
| Roth et al, 2010 | 10 | 13 | 100% | 70 | 6 | 30 | Prostate cancer | Fatigue | BFI: 5.13±2.25/4.01±2. 00 | USA | parallel | 3 |
| FSS: 4.27±1.31/4.21±1.37 | ||||||||||||
For both methylphenidate and placebo groups.
Abbreviations: FACT-F = Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Fatigue subscale; ESAS-D = Edmonton Symptom Assessment System-Depression subscale; CESD = Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale; MMSE = Mini-Mental State Exam; BDI-II = Beck Depression Inventory-II; HSCS = High Sensitivity Cognitive Screen; BFI = Brief Fatigue Inventory; FSS = Fatigue Severity Scale.