Table 1.

Pharmacological agents for the management of cognitive impairment in brain tumour patients

Ref.	Pharmacological agent	Study design	Population (n)	Timing	Relevant results
Boele et al. [51]	Modafinil	Double-blind, placebo controlled cross-over trial	Primary brain tumour (n = 37)	At baseline, after 6 weeks of modafinil/placebo and 6 weeks after opposite treatment	Modafinil did not exceed the effects of placebo
Brown et al. [47]	Memantine	Double-blind, placebo controlled RCT	Brian metastases (n = 508)	At baseline, and at 8, 16, 24 and 52 weeks after the start of WBRT	Memantine delayed time to cognitive decline and reduced the rate of decline in memory, executive function and processing speed
Butler et al. [52]	Methylphenidate HCI	Double-blind, placebo controlled RCT	Primary and metastatic brain tumours (n = 68)	At baseline, during and 4, 8 and 12 weeks after RT	No difference in MMSE score between the groups
Correa et al. [48]	Donepezil	Pilot	Primary brain tumour (n = 15)	After treatment with RT + CT or CT	A significant postbaseline improvement in attention, motor speed, visual memory
Gehring et al. [53]	Methylphenidate and modafinil	Open-label, randomized pilot trial	Primary brain tumour (n = 24)	At baseline and 4 weeks thereafter	Improvement in processing speed and executive functioning
Meyers et al. [54]	Methylphenidate	Open-label without control group	High-grade gliomas (n = 30)	At baseline, week 4, 8, 12 thereafter	Improvement in various tests, mood, subjective improvement in 20/26 patients after 4 weeks
Rapp et al. [50]	Donepezil	RCT	Primary and metastatic brain tumours (n = 198)	After partial RT or WHBT	Modest improvement in memory and motor speed
Page et al. [55]	Armodafinil	Double-blind, placebo-controlled RCT	Meningioma and glioma (n = 54)	At the end of RT and 4 weeks after RT	No difference between the treatment arms on any of the cognitive tests
Shaw et al. [49]	Donepezil	Open-label without control group	Primary brain tumours, one metastatic (n = 35)	6 months post RT	Improvement in various cognitive tests after 24 weeks

CT, chemotherapy; RCT, randomized controlled trial; RT, radiotherapy; WBRT, whole-brain radiation therapy.