Dore Talk

How important is research truly, in the medical field? Let me step onto my soapbox for just a moment.............

Well, in practice not always that much.  Here in the United States, I know of at least one very prestigious medical clinic that actually has a CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) department. Here, practicing medical physicians provide information on, prescribe, and practice such unconventional, unproven therapies as homeopathy, accupuncture, herbology, nutrition, wellness diets for healing, and spirituality and well-being, among other therapies, treatments, and protocols.  They base this aspect of their practice on nothing but amounts of purely anectodal evidence, personal experience, and practice experience, all of which DOES indeed mean something very valid in the real practicing world.  Dore certainly falls into this category.  These physicians offer this service because evidence-based, scientifically-proven medicine does indeed fail enough patients that top-notch physicians have integrated interests of their own, gained expertise in, and have explored other options so that patients may not only be aware of and benifit from them, but to exhange helpful information when a patient questions an unconventional protocol, and to be of most benefit to their patients when everything evidence-based has failed, or patients just want to explore other options.  In a nutshell, in the real world of practicing experts, unproven methods of treatment are being provided, recommended, and endorsed in the medical field more and more every day, despite lack of research and scientific evidnece in these areas. Those of you who know me well, know that I am experienced inside the medical field and personally see this every day in medical practice. In other words, because a method is not proven, does not make it unworthy of recommending and undergoing, in the real practicing world of medicine.

Personally, and from my friend's experiences when discussing Dore with medical and psychological professionals, though most of these professionals are not as informed of the Dore method as the readers and members of this forum are, they do understand the premise of of it and have regarded it as something worthy of continuing if results are being achieved and have admitted that any harmful side-effects are very unlikely, and put our experiences into their file cabinets should another patient enquire about it.   

So, have your research if you must, yet please have respect for those of us who are brave enough to take a bold step towards positive results by exploring outside the evidence-based box when all that is inside the box has failed or is just not available.  It is because of us that do, the way is paved for not only ourselves and our children but our future to benefit from. 

The only benefits to be found by sitting and waiting for scientifically proven evidence, are NONE.

WELL SAID!

Frazzle, I know you are loyal to the Dore program because you said it helped your son. But for those of us for whom Dore was not successful, we would like to see the research. We were faithful program participants who completed the program as specified and still did not benefit. I, personally, would like to see a report stating the NUMBER (not percentage range) of individuals who have completed the program (as specified in the contract) and who have seen significant, documented gains in behavior/social skills/academics. I would also like to see a number signifying the individuals for whom the program did not work and what those individuals' presenting problems were. I don't think this is beyond the realm of possibility, as it is basic math. The most difficult aspect of obtaining such info, however, will be quantifying the improvements so that it is not just anecdotal evidence being collected. I do trust that Dore has the integrity (and is equipped) to do so. And I look forward to the reported outcomes, hopefully in the very near future.

Starshine, I have read your posts, and I am truly very sorry that Dore did not help your son. My son is 15, and I just don't have the time for that kind of information to come out, as my time with him is running very short!  So, that is why I was satisified with the anecdotal reports, one of which was referred by a friend of mine.  We had nothing to loose, even the money. It's not about that, I'm sure that as a mother, you would go to the ends of the earth to find solutions to help your child for a lifetime if you could.  And, you did.  I cherish the moments my son and I worked togther towards this goal for him, even though there were many tears and arguments and it was not FUN most of the time, and I would carry that sentiment even if both of us felt that he didn't have any benefit. We would have known that we did all we could to try to help him.  Even though I DO see improvements in my son, I was lucky enough to have some benchmarks to measure by, besides the scores on the assessments, though he will tell you that the therapy has done nothing for him.  LOL!  Thanks for hanging around, Starshine, and I truly do hope that you find some answers along the way that eventually will help him, he deserves the best chances life has to offer.  I would gather that Dore does keep the kinds of stats that you mentioned, it would be interesting to see them in print someday should they choose to release that kind of info.