Bryant 2003.
| Methods | Randomised controlled trial | |
| Participants | 58 outpatient survivors of non‐sexual assaults or road traffic accidents in Australia (30 women, 28 men) | |
| Interventions | 8 weekly 90‐minute sessions of imaginal exposure (n = 20), imaginal exposure/cognitive restructuring (n = 20) or supportive counselling (n = 18). (imaginal exposure and imaginal exposure/cognitive restructuring were combined for meta‐analysis). | |
| Outcomes | CAPS, IES, STAI, BDI | |
| Notes | Therapists were masters level clinical psychologists. Treatment adherence was assessed. | |
| Risk of bias | ||
| Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Low risk | Quote: "Randomization was conducted by a process of minimization stratified on gender, trauma type, and PTSD total score. Participants were randomly assigned according to a random numbers system and each month Richard A. Bryant amended the allocation to ensure that gender, trauma type, and PTSD severity were balanced across conditions." |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Unclear risk | Comment: It is unclear if/how allocation was concealed. |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | Low risk | Quote "Intent‐to‐treat values were devised by using a last‐value‐carried forward procedure to provide data for missing values that occurred because of dropout." Comment: Reasons for drop‐out are not fully reported. ITT analyses were however reported. Drop‐out by group was as follows: imaginal exposure (5), imaginal exposure/cognitive restructuring (5) or supportive counselling (3). |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) | Low risk | Comment: All specified and expected outcomes appear to have been reported. |
| Other bias | Low risk | Comment: no other sources of bias detected. |
| Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes | High risk | Comment: Participants were aware of their allocation. |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes | Low risk | Quote: "Initial assessments were conducted at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 6‐month follow‐up by independent clinicians who were unaware of the treatment condition of participants. Blindness was maintained by ensuring that clinicians who conducted assessments did not have access to (a) participant notes, (b) treatment allocation of participants, or (c) supervision discussions of therapy sessions." |