Chen 2014.
| Methods | 3‐Arm RCT | |
| Participants | Two years after Sichuan earthquake (2010‐2011), in which survivors experienced horrific sights and sounds, as their school buildings collapsed with students inside. A great number of survivors' friends and classmates were injured or died Adolescents who lost at least 1 parent in the earthquake; scored > 18 points on the CRIES‐13 and thus were considered to have PTSD symptoms |
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| Interventions | Cognitive‐behavioural therapy (CBT): 16 participants General support group: 12 participants Non‐treatment group: 12 participants |
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| Outcomes | Chinese versions of 3 psychological instruments were used to evaluate outcomes of the interventions: The CRIES‐13 was used to assess PTSD symptoms, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES‐D) to assess depressive symptoms, and the Connor‐Davidson Resilience Scale (CD‐RISC) to measure psychological resilience | |
| Notes | ||
| Risk of bias | ||
| Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Unclear risk | Quote: "The 40 adolescents were randomly divided into three groups" No further information |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Unclear risk | No information provided |
| Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes | High risk | The non‐treatment group did not receive any psychological placebo Quote: "The volunteers visited the ten adolescents’ homes weekly for six weeks to provide support and assistance to them in dealing with problems at home and at school. No intervention or services were provided to the 12 students in the control group" |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes | Unclear risk | No information provided |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | High risk | Dropout of intervention sample 6/16; dropout of control group 2/12 Quote: "Only 32 adolescents completed the entire study. Six students were dropped from the CBT group, and two students were dropped from the general support group" |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) | Low risk | Primary outcomes are reported |
| Therapist qualification | Unclear risk | Intervention was delivered by school staff |
| Treatment fidelity | Unclear risk | No information provided |
| Therapist/investigator allegiance | Unclear risk | No information provided |
| Other bias | Unclear risk | No information provided |