substantiate the strong healthrelated advertising claimsthe company based many of its claims on assessments of patients before and after they completed 30 45minute sessions watching a movie while connected to brainwave mapping technology which detects when a subject gets distracted and then stops the movie the therapy claims to help retrain the brain to stop spiking out of range the company advertised that through its treatments patients learn to breathe deeper and slower resulting in better brain and heart functionwhile the panel recognizes that neurocores internal studies are relevant to the outcome claims discussed below the panel does not believe that these studies constitute competent and reliable scientific evidence establishing the efficacy of neurofeedback in treating a wide variety of disorders the appeals panel wrote in its decisionneurocore said it would comply with the recommendations to halt its advertisements though it would still share its outcomesin an interview the companys chief executive officer mark murrison said that the company had great respect for the panel and that recommendations to improve its advertisements were a win for everybodymr murrison said the company believed in its results but was evolving he noted that although the panel did not challenge the accuracy of its results the company had already discontinued some claims such as a 25 percent reduction in reported symptoms on the autism evaluation checklistswe believe in our outcomes and will present them in a way that is accurate and in a way thats compliant with the decision he said we are proud were able to provide a nondrug option and anytime you are bringing innovation into a new industry youll be challenged by those who only know the status quoneurocore has boasted in promotional materials that 81 percent of children who come to us on adhd meds and complete our program are able to reduce or eliminate their use of medications upon program completion and that more that 70 percent of its patients achieved nonclinical status for anxiety and depressive symptomsthe appeals panel took particular issue with the company basing its claims of success on internal studies gleaned from surveys of its patients from these assessments the company claimed clinically important reductions in symptoms and that patients no longer met symptomatic thresholdsthe panel believed that such claims were misleading because they gave the impression that the reduction in symptoms was clinically determined it said the internal studies were observational not controlled and potentially influenced by experimental biasthe panel wrote that its decision did not preclude neurocore from discussing or promoting its assessment data as long as officials did not imply that patients experienced a significant reduction in symptoms or were cured it also recommended that the program make clear that patients who take medication for conditions consult with their doctor before discontinuingmr murrison said that neurocore still believed in the accuracy of its results and that the company had had no consumer or competitor complaintswhats really important to us is that everybody who comes to us for help leave better than