They were supportive despite recognising small effect sizes.
In 1983 Prioleau Murdock and Brody published: An analysis of psychotherapy versus placebo studies - a scrutiny of a subset of the former's data. They wrote "It was concluded that for real patients there is no evidence that the benefits of psychotherapy are greater than those of placebo treatment."
We are still engaging in this. More to benefit the therapists than the patients?
