Procedures
schizophrenia, allegiance
As reported in the registered protocol, this study was approved by the Ethics Committee and Institutional Review Board of the first author (Reference Number 032020–07,072,020). The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and informed consent was obtained from all the participants (clients and therapists). Clients and therapists were recruited through emails and online posts advertising the study. After having signed informed consent form, therapists were assessed for eligibility by the researchers responsible for supervision (supervisors) and patients by the researcher responsible for assessment (assessor). All the clients completed as pre-assessment the (tAll randomized patients were supposed to attend a 6-months of weekly therapy (total expected sessions = 24). They did not receive any compensation for the study. EC therapist and CG therapist were supervised every two weeks (by EC supervisor and CG supervisor, respectively). Supervision lasted 90 min and followed a general outline focused on: (a) evaluation of the therapeutic alliance; (b) evaluation of therapist’s conceptualization; (c) evaluation of the therapist's adherence to the protocol; (d) evaluation of the treatment plan; (e) evaluation of changes in psychopathology; (f) and evaluation of patient's feedbacks and requests. In addition to supporting clinical work, the supervision aimed at confirming adherence to the specific intervention provided.In the same week in which the first session of the CG took place, a psychiatrist (MD) completed an initial visit to set up medication in accordance with guidelines for SPD [Supervisors were recruited if they had more than five years of experience in the specific treatment (CFT and MOP for EC supervisor; CBT for CG supervisor), whereas psychiatrists if they had more than five years of experience in schizophrenia and PDs.In order to reduce allegiance bias, the statistician was affiliated with a different institution than the one of therapists and supervisors. In addition, the statistician, investigator and psychiatrist were selected as declaring themselves as from a different psychotherapy orientation in respect to the one of EG intervention.At the end of the study (that is after the 1-month follow-up), the therapists and patients were asked to be willing to continue the therapy. Both therapists accepted, and the majority of patients continued therapy after the interruption between final and follow-up assessment (EG = 10; CG = 6). All the interventions were delivered at the Center for Psychology and Health, ANONYMIZED.