Question: For adults of working age with treatment-resistant depression, how effective is modafinil as an adjunctive treatment, compared to any other intervention, for improving depressive symptoms and quality of life?

Answer:

Based on one systematic review of four studies in adults with major depressive disorder, modafinil augmentation therapy showed a positive effect on depressive symptoms at the end of treatment compared with placebo. Given that the review was of moderate quality but the quality of the included studies was unclear, the overall strength of evidence for this topic is low. All the evidence was of short-term effects of up to eight weeks and there is a need for further research into the long-term effects of modafinil augmentation therapy.

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