Abbass 2008.
| Methods | Multicentre RCT of 2 parallel conditions | |
| Participants | 27 participants referred from physicians or mental health professionals Inclusion criteria: aged 18‐70 years, ≥ 1 DSM IV Personality Disorder. People with co‐morbid non‐psychotic symptom disorders were acceptable Exclusion criteria: psychosis, organic brain syndrome, mental retardation, current substance dependence, acute suicidal behaviour, violent behaviour, no new psychotropic medication in the previous 3 months |
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| Interventions | Intervention: intensive STDP, manualised, based on Davanloo 2000 Control: minimal contact wait‐list (mean duration 14.8 weeks) 5 therapists with over 5 years training and experience in ISTDP. Mean number of sessions 27.7. All sessions videotaped, adherence rated through sampling of videotapes using adherence rating scale | |
| Outcomes | BSI, IIP, GAF Symptoms and Social Occupational, medication use and cost, work hours and function, all measured at pre therapy, post therapy, and at 1 and 2 year follow‐up | |
| Notes | ||
| Risk of bias | ||
| Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Low risk | Quote: "Randomized and stratified by age and sex...randomised cards were used so the screener was blind to the allocation before selection of a card" Comment: randomised cards |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Low risk | Comment: additional information provided by lead author indicating the use of randomised cards in sealed envelopes thus minimising risk of bias |
| Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes | Unclear risk | Comment: no psychotherapist was blinded to the treatment delivered Blinding participants to treatment group not possible Primary measures: self reports (BSI, IIP): low risk Insufficient information on blinding of clinician ratings of GAF‐S, therefore overall bias considered unclear |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | Low risk | Comment: 1 drop‐out only and ITT analysis performed |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) | Unclear risk | Comment: insufficient information to permit judgement. No published report on pre‐specified outcomes |
| Other bias | Unclear risk | Comment: insufficient information to permit judgement |