Study	Treatment (taken at night, unless stated)	Pain outcome	Other efficacy outcome
Kishore‐Kumar 1990	18:00 single dose Desipramine 12.5 mg daily initially, increasing to 250 mg daily or maximum tolerated Active placebo (benztropine) 0.5 mg daily , increasing to 1 mg daily	Participants' global evaluation of pain relief (6 items: worse to complete): moderate or better Desipramine 12/19; Placebo 2/19 a lot or complete Desipramine 8/19; Placebo 1/19 Weekly participant rating of pain intensity: desipramine superior to placebo by end of week 6 (p<0.001) (also by end of week 3: p<0.05) (inclusion of drop‐outs did not change conclusion)	Reduction in pain components (desipramine:placebo) Steady 9/19:1/19 Brief 4/8:0/8 Mechanical allodynia 7/18:1/18
Max 1991	18:00 single dose Desipramine 12.5 mg daily initially, increasing to 250 mg daily or maximum tolerated Active placebo (benztropine) 0.5 mg daily , increasing to 1 mg daily	Participants' global evaluation of pain relief (6 items: worse to complete): moderate or better Desipramine 11/20; Placebo 2/20 a lot or complete Desipramine 4/20; Placebo 2/20 Weekly participant rating of pain intensity: Desipramine superior to placebo by end of week 6 (p<0.01) (also by start of week 5: p<0.05) (inclusion of one drop‐out who completed at least part of both phases did not change conclusion)	Reduction in pain components: Steady burning significantly reduced with desipramine (P<0.05) "Trend" towards reduction with steady aching and brief pains
Max 1992	21:00 single dose Desipramine 12.5 mg daily initially, increasing to 250 mg daily or maximum tolerated Amitriptyline 12.5 mg daily initially, increasing to 250 mg daily or maximum tolerated	Participants' global evaluation of pain relief (6 items: worse to complete): moderate or better Desipramine 23/38; Amitriptyline 28/38 a lot or complete Desipramine 15/38; Amitriptyline 18/38 ITT analysis results "similar" Weekly mean of participant rating of pain intensity: no significant difference between desipramine and amitriptyline
Rowbotham 2005	Two doses per day (times not given) Desipramine 25‐150 mg daily, titrated to maximum tolerable Amitriptyline 25‐150 mg daily, titrated to maximum tolerable Fluoxetine 10‐60 mg daily, titrated to maximum tolerable	Weekly results from Visual Analogue Scale of pain intensity: baseline to end Desipramine 50 to 29mm (47% decrease) Amitriptyline 59 to 39mm (38%) decrease) Fluoxetine 53 to 36mm (35% decrease) 6 item pain relief scale (worse to complete): at least moderate relief Desipramine 12/15 Amitriptyline 9/17 Fluoxetine 5/15 Relief category scale (0‐5: 3 = moderate relief) Desipramine 3.1 Amitriptyline 2.7 Fluoxetine 2.1
Sindrup 1990	20:00 single dose Desipramine 200 mg daily (EM); 50 mg daily (PM) Clomipramine 75 mg daily (EM); 50 mg daily (PM) Placebo	Pain not assessed separately but as one of set of neuropathy symptoms Neuropathy symptom scale (6 item, 0 to 2): pain, paraesthesia, dysaesthesia, numbness, nightly deterioration, sleep disturbance) Performed daily by participants and at end of treatment period by physician Scores significantly better than placebo with both observer and self‐rating: desipramine 0.05<P<0.10 Median reduction with observer scores >25% reduction in score compared with placebo: Desipramine 10/25 Clomipramine 14/25	Single items: desipramine not significantly lower than placebo for pain Median [sic but probably mean] 1.02 versus 1.50 (0‐2 scale) (P>0.30)
EM: extensive metaboliser; PM: poor metaboliser