Summerbell 1992.

Methods	Randomised controlled trial
Participants	14 patients with HIV infection
Interventions	MA 40 mg daily which was increased by 40 mg daily on alternate weeks to a maximum of 160 mg daily if there was no response in weight, or cyproheptadine 12 mg daily for a period of 3 months
Outcomes	Weight, sexual thoughts, arousal and orgasms
Notes	The study was discontinued after 14 patients were enrolled Cachexia was defined as weight loss < 5 kg QS: 2
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Insufficient information to permit judgement of low risk or high risk
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Insufficient information to permit judgement of low risk or high risk
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	See below
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Low risk	The main outcome was weight. This is not a blinded study but the main outcome is not likely to be influenced by lack of blinding
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	The main outcome was weight. This is not a blinded study but the main outcome is not likely to be influenced by lack of blinding
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	All patients were studied
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All outcomes were reported
Other bias	High risk	The study was discontinued after 14 patients were enrolled, because recruitment was too slow and the majority of patients had diarrhoea or overt infections