Modafinil for poststroke patients: A systematic review

Stroke is a major cause of death and disability worldwide. The use of modafinil, a wakefulness-promoting agent, is hypothesised to benefit stroke patients.

We performed a systematic review in accordance with the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions recommendations to assess the efficacy and safety of modafinil in poststroke patients. We prospectively registered the review protocol in PROSPERO (CRD42017078465) and reported the systematic review following the PRISMA statement.

Two published studies (77 participants) and one ongoing randomised controlled trial, with limited methodological quality, assessed the effects of modafinil (200 mg or 400 mg) for adults from 14 days poststroke up to 3 months poststroke and fulfilled our inclusion criteria. The clinical and methodological variability between studies precluded meta-analyses. Overall, these studies showed some benefit of modafinil for fatigue, but no benefit for disability, cognition, and for subscores of stroke-specific quality of life. Data for adverse events were scarce and mortality was not considered by studies. Due to very low quality related to the evidence, we are uncertain about the effects of modafinil for all outcomes assessed by our systematic review.

Based on two small randomised controlled trial, which provided very low quality evidence, the effects (benefits and harms) of modafinil for stroke patients are unclear and do not support its routinely use in clinical practice for this clinical situation. Number of Protocol registration in PROSPERO database: CRD42017078465 (available from http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?ID=CRD42017078465).