Question – what is Dore?
Dore is described by Dr Ben Goldacre in the Guardian Newspaper in May 2008 as an expensive ‘”miracle cure” for dyslexia, invented by paint entrepreneur Wynford Dore… despite the fact that the evidence base for the programme was spectacularly poor’.
They target families in particular – claiming they help with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), Dyspraxia (poor coordination), Asperger’s Syndrome (form of autism) and Dyslexia (reading disorder).
In the Australasian Journal of Special Education, which attacked the controversial drug-free program in 2008, “The scientific evidence to support the claims of the Dore program has not yet been established… there are two flawed studies, both carried out by the same group who were not independent of the Dore program.”
Dore went into receivership / administration in Australia and several other countries including New Zealand, the US and the UK. The impact was documented by Brainduck blog, Dr Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science, Gimpy’s Blog, Holford Watch and my own, PodBlack Cat – “Dore UK: Out-Of-Pocket Parents” and ‘Dore Australia in Receivership‘ are two blog entries which reflect what was happening at the time.
The coverage by those blogs was described by Dr Ben Goldacre in the Guardian as, compared to mainstream media coverage of Dore, “win[ing] on timeliness, accuracy, relevance, effort, ethics, and stupid names”. You might also like to look at Paul Flynn MP Early Day Motion on Dore (and bloggers), thanks to Evidence Matters blog.
Question – what happened to Dore in the UK today with the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)?
Well, thanks to the power of aforesaid Ben Goldacre, Gimpy’s Blog, Holford Watch, Brainduck, many other science bloggers, including my own - we do not take continuing unsupported claims of Dore as acceptable and continue to speak out.
This time, there’s the UK Advertising Standards Authority taking a stand too, after they were alerted.
The ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 50.1 (Health and beauty products and therapies).
Read on!
The Sunday Times – ASA Not Happy As Dore Opens Its Doors Again:
The Dore Programme which was backed by rugby ace Kenny Logan and former Welsh International Scott Quinnell went into adminstration in May.
But it’s back – and little seems to have changed. Desperate parents are still being offered a miracle cure. Once again it comes with a hefty £2,000 price tag. And not for the first time a watchdog has ruled that Dore’s claims are exaggerated.
...the Advertising Standards Authority is less than convinced and this week it ordered the company to take down paid-for Google links offering “help” for dyslexia, ADHD dyspraxia, and Asperger’s, a form of autism.
The sponsored links should have been shut down at midnight yesterday, and the ASA is now investigating why they were still live after the deadline given in its ruling.
The Dore Programme attempted to defend the ads claiming they offer a proven treatment, and it put forward two supposedly scientific studies it said supported its claims. But the ASA found the first included children who had not even been diagnosed with dyslexia, neither involved people with ADHD or Asperger’s and both were so flawed the results could not be trusted.
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MORE NEWS!!!
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2009/12/scott-quinnell-embroiled-in-do.html
Through his firm Dynevor Limited he’s continued promoting Dore, despite what the respected (and hugely entertaining) Bad Science blog called “spectacularly poor” evidence that it works.
Now the Advertising Standards Authority has asked Dynevor to stand up its claims.
The firm sent two studies but the ASA ruled both flawed and said the online plugs
were misleading.
*The complaint to the ASA was made by a campaigner against medical bull: see http://holfordwatch.info
It is good to see that these families are not going to be misled any more. They have dealt with enough.
Thank you.
One small correction though – the ‘Sun’ newspaper, rather than the ‘Sunday Times’ wrote the story about the ASA claims.
I imagine their journalists would be amused at anyone mixing the two up, they’re very different papers
Somehow this whole “Dore” matter managed to avoid my attention, but it’s always good to see quacks get smacked down.
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