Schnyder 1998.

Methods	Design: quasi‐randomised controlled trial Allocation method: alternation Blinding: not stated
Participants	Diagnosis: primary or secondary vaginismus Criteria: DSM‐III‐R Setting: outpatient clinic Number: 51 but data only on 44 available Age: 28 years, SD = 7.72 (range 19 to 55) Duration of vaginismus: not stated for all participants
Interventions	Intervention 1: systematic desensitisation (in vitro) Number of sessions: until symptoms abated Duration of sessions: not stated Therapist level: not stated Adjunctive interventions: not stated Intervention 2: systematic desensitisation (in vivo) Number of sessions: until symptoms abated Duration of sessions: not stated Therapist level: not stated Adjunctive interventions: not stated
Outcomes	Successful sexual intercourse Drop‐outs
Notes	Data on 44 patients from contact with author 7 patients excluded due to insufficient data
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	High risk	Alternation
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not reported
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not reported
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	"Because of insufficient data, particularly subsequent to therapy, 7 women had to be eliminated from the evaluation..." No attempt at ITT analysis reported
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	Outcome data provided for all stated outcomes but we have no access to study protocols so cannot be certain other outcomes were not assessed
Other bias	High risk	Participants were free to change treatments after the initial allocation procedure (2 migrated from the in vivo to the in vitro arm of the trial). This equates with a high risk of selection bias which seriously weakens confidence in the results. Participants kept in treatment until symptoms abated.