This is a red herring. If there was a real methodological problem with Pendery 1982, why did Science (one of the most prestigious journals out there) publish it? The abstinent “control” group was not studied because they were not relevant; if a follow-up study can invalidate the experimental condition (as Pendery 1982 did), there is no need to see what happened with the control condition.
Philip Abelson, the editor of Science when Pendery 1982 was studied, had this to say about the process of making that report:
The report that we published in our 9 July issue [Pendery et aI., 1982] was very carefully edited. It was extensively reviewed, including evaluation by an expert statistician. [...] We required that assertions made about patients' histories be documented by court records, police records, hospital records, or affidavits. The final draft was checked repeatedly, sentence by sentence, to ensure that supporting evidence was available. In crucial instances, two or more independent documents corroborated statements made.Now, let me describe Philip Abelson in more detail: He helped in the research which won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He won the National Medal of Science in 1987. He was part of the Manhattan Project. He was a key researcher in the design of the nuclear submarine. He did a lot of important paleobiology research. He had over 40 years of experience in the scientific technique when he allowed Pendery 1982 to be published. If there was a real problem with the science behind Pendery 1982, he would had found it.