| Methods |
Randomised controlled trial |
| Participants |
51 male combat veterans with DSM‐III‐R PTSD in Australia |
| Interventions |
12 sessions of EMDR (n = 19) vs biofeedback‐assisted relaxation (n = 16) vs routine clinical care (n = 16) (all interventions included in meta‐analyses) |
| Outcomes |
Mississippi scale, PTSD symptom scale, IES, STAI, BDI |
| Notes |
Therapist trained by Francine Shapiro. No mention of an assessment of treatment adherence. |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) |
Unclear risk |
Comment: The method of sequence generation was not reported. |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) |
Unclear risk |
Comment: There is no mention of any measures taken to conceal allocation. |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes |
High risk |
Comment: There were no reasons given for drop‐outs (6 drop‐outs from EMDR, 4 drop‐outs from relaxation and 6 drop‐outs from usual care). Data from the completers were analysed. |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) |
Low risk |
Comment: All specified outcomes were reported, |
| Other bias |
Low risk |
There were no other obvious sources of bias. |
| 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 |
Comment: All measures were self‐reported and administered by post. |
