Limitations of the study
Observation of the sample groups over a period of 12 weeksmay
be insufficient to evaluate the effects of treatment in the medium
term. Moreover, we did not test the patients’ awareness of
belonging to one or the other group, and so their complete
“blindness” cannot be assured. Another possible limitation was
the absence of techniques to verify the behaviour of the therapist,
although the time spent with each patient was recorded; this was
always close to the mean value (29.4 minutes).
Taking into account the duration of the study (12 weeks), we
recorded patients’ body mass index at the beginning and the end