CRediT contribution statement
Patrick Stone (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5765-9047): Conceptualisation, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Visualisation, Writing – original draft, Writing – reviewing and editing.
Ollie Minton (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4258-8995): Conceptualisation, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Writing – reviewing and editing.
Alison Richardson (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3127-5755): Conceptualisation, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Writing – reviewing and editing.
Peter Buckle (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8139-2768): Project administration, Writing – reviewing and editing.
Zinat E Enayat (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4384-9314): Investigation, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – reviewing and editing.
Louise Marston (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9973-1131): Data curation, Formal analysis, Project administration, Resources, Software, Validation, Visualisation, Writing – reviewing and editing.
Nick Freemantle (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5807-5740): Conceptualisation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – reviewing and editing.
Michael King (deceased): Conceptualisation, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration.
Simon Noble: Supervision (TSC).
Toby Prevost: Supervision (TSC).
Kathy Seddon: Supervision (TSC).
Fliss Murtagh: Supervision [Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB)].
Andrew Davies: Supervision (DSMB).
Paul Howard: Supervision (DSMB).
Deborah Stocken: Supervision (DSMB).
Laura Hennelly: Investigation.
Munirah Islam: Investigation.
Hinal Lukha: Investigation.
Anne Marie Downey: Data curation, Project administration, Supervision.
Lana Amyri: Project administration, Validation.
Zohra Khan: Project administration, Validation.
David Miodrag: Investigation, Project administration.
Lorna Brown: Investigation.
Melanie Hands: Investigation.
Andrew Tolliday: Investigation.
Paul Perkins: Investigation, Project administration.
Kate Tredgett: Provision.
Anne Parkinson: Investigation.
Angela Halley: Investigation, Project administration.
Sally-Anne Holman: Investigation.
Rookmeen Alighan: Investigation.
Sejal Jain: Investigation.
Mark Banting: Investigation, Project administration.
Soumen Saha: Investigation, Project administration.
Andrew Thorns: Investigation, Project administration.
Charlotte Brigden: Investigation.
Rose Ward: Investigation.
Sarah Stirrup: Investigation.
Bethany Jones: Investigation.
Becky Bright: Investigation.
Liam Gabb: Investigation.
Rachel Hogg: Investigation.
Sarah Parnacott: Investigation, Project administration.
Georgina Staine: Investigation.
Anne-marie Carey: Investigation, Project administration.
Sabrina Bajwah: Investigation, Project administration.
Stefania Stegner: Investigation.
Paramjote Kaler: Investigation.
Sarah Frearson: Investigation, Project administration.
Clementine Fitchett: Investigation.
Tamunoibim Anidima: Investigation.
David Brooks: Investigation, Project administration.
Catriona Mayland: Investigation, Project administration.
Angela Star: Investigation, Project administration.
Lisa Zeidan: Investigation.
Meredyth Harris: Investigation.
Maelie Swanick: Investigation, Project administration.
Katie Riches: Investigation, Project administration.
Ruth England: Investigation, Project administration.
Michael Bennett: Investigation, Project administration.
Carla Bruni: Investigation, Project administration.
Matthew Carey: Investigation, Project administration.
Faeqa Hami: Investigation, Project administration.
Alice Ngumo: Investigation.
Janice Carpenter: Investigation.
Data-sharing statement
This work uses data provided by patients and collected by the NHS as part of their care and support. Using patient data is vital to improve health and care for everyone. There is huge potential to make better use of information from people’s patient records, to understand more about disease, develop new treatments, monitor safety and plan NHS services. Patient data should be kept safe and secure, to protect everyone’s privacy, and it’s important that there are safeguards to make sure that they are stored and used responsibly. Everyone should be able to find out about how patient data are used. #datasaveslives You can find out more about the background to this citation here: https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/data-citation.Requests to share suitably anonymised data for scientific purposes should be made in writing and sent to priment@ucl.ac.uk for consideration. Data will only be shared upon completion of a data-sharing agreement.
Ethics statement
The London City and East REC gave approval for this study on 7 August 2017 (IRAS project ID 215297; REC reference number 17/LO/0871; protocol number 15/0592).
Information governance statement
University College London is committed to handling all personal information in line with the UK Data Protection Act (2018) and the General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) 2016/679. Under the Data Protection legislation, University College London is the Data Controller, and you can find out more about how we handle personal data, including how to exercise your individual rights and the contact details for our Data Protection Officer here (www.ucl.ac.uk/data-protection/).
Disclosure of interests
Full disclosure of interests: Completed ICMJE forms for all authors, including all related interests, are available in the toolkit on the NIHR Journals Library report publication page at https://doi.org/10.3310/GJPS6321.
Primary conflicts of interest: Patrick Stone reports institutional funding from NIHR to undertake this work as Chief Investigator. He receives institutional core and programme funding from Marie Curie. Ollie Minton received institutional funding from NIHR to undertake this work as Co-investigator. He reports payment for being national end of life advisor for Macmillan cancer support. Alison Richardson reports institutional funding from NIHR to undertake this work as Co-investigator. She also received institutional funding for her role as Chief Investigator NIHR ARC Wessex. She reports salaried employment as Head of Nursing Research, NHS England (secondment). Peter Buckle has no conflicts to declare. Zinat E Enayat has no conflicts to declare. Louise Marston reports institutional funding from NIHR. Nick Freemantle received institutional funding from NIHR to undertake this work as Co-investigator.
All authors have completed International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Disclosure of Interest Statements.
Department of Health and Social Care disclaimer
This publication presents independent research commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The views and opinions expressed by authors in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NHS, the NIHR, MRC, NIHR Coordinating Centre, the Health Technology Assessment programme or the Department of Health and Social Care.
This synopsis was published based on current knowledge at the time and date of publication. NIHR is committed to being inclusive and will continually monitor best practice and guidance in relation to terminology and language to ensure that we remain relevant to our stakeholders.
Trial registration
This trial is registered as EudraCT number 2017-001950-33 and ISRCTN 79478762.
Funding
This synopsis presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme as award number 15/46/02.
Additional outputs
Stone PC, Minton O, Richardson A, Buckle P, Enayat ZE, Marston L, Freemantle N. Methylphenidate no more effective than placebo for treating cancer-related fatigue: randomised, double-blind, multi-centre, placebo-controlled trial. Oral abstract presented at the European Association of Palliative Care 13th World Research Congress, 16–18 May 2024, Barcelona, Spain.
About this synopsis
The contractual start date for this research was in May 2017. This synopsis began editorial review in February 2024 and was accepted for publication in March 2025. The authors have been wholly responsible for all data collection, analysis and interpretation, and for writing up their work. The Health Technology Assessment editors and publisher have tried to ensure the accuracy of the authors’ synopsis and would like to thank the reviewers for their constructive comments on the draft document. However, they do not accept liability for damages or losses arising from material published in this synopsis.
Copyright
Copyright © 2025 Stone et al. This work was produced by Stone et al. under the terms of a commissioning contract issued by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. This is an Open Access publication distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0 licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. For attribution the title, original author(s), the publication source – NIHR Journals Library, and the DOI of the publication must be cited.
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