of borderline significancep = 0.0575
3A ’) At 2 months, the self-reported patients’ QOL increased by 0.72 (95% CI [− 0.44, 1.88]) for the intervention group and decreased by − 0.98 (95% CI [− 2.19, 0.24]) for the control group, representing a significant 1.70 point difference (95% CI [0.01, 3.38]) in favour of TPE ( p = 0.0483), which was sustained at 6 months (1.74, 95% CI [0.34, 3.1]; p = 0.0154) but of borderline significance at 12 months ( p = 0.0575).