Daniel Amen

Daniel G. Amen, M.D. is a child and adult psychiatrist, self-help advisor, author and medical director of the Amen Clinic. He has done work in evaluating psychiatric and neurological patients with the help of SPECT scanning, especially in the area of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Career and work

Amen is licensed to practice medicine in California, Arizona, Washington, Virginia and New York.^{[citation needed]} He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and the APA's 1987 recipient of the Marie H. Eldredge Award for the best research work. He is the CEO and medical director of The Amen Clinics, Inc. in Newport Beach, California, San Francisco, California, Bellevue, Washington and Reston, Virginia. Amen is also a member of the American Neuropsychiatric Association

Amen is a volunteer Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. He received his undergraduate degree from the Christian Southern California College (now Vanguard University of Southern California) and his doctor of medicine degree from Oral Roberts University School of Medicine.

Amen is an accomplished author who has written 28 books, including four New York Time’s Best Sellers, and producer of six national public television specials that have aired 40,000 times across the United States. He has an author page on Amazon.com.

The books published include:

• Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness, published December 31, 1999
• Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program That Allows You to See and Heal the 6 Types of ADD, published June 1, 2002
• Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted, published December 28, 2010
• The Amen Solution: The Brain Healthy Way to Get Thinner, Smarter, Happier, published December 27, 2011
• Healing Anxiety and Depression, published December 7, 2004
• Use Your Brain to Change Your Age: Secrets to Look, Feel, and Think Younger Every Day, published February 14, 2012
• Magnificent Mind at Any Age: Natural Ways to Unleash Your Brain's Maximum Potential, published December 29, 2009
• Making a Good Brain Great: The Amen Clinic Program for Achieving and Sustaining Optimal Mental Performance, published December 26, 2006
• Change Your Brain, Change Your Body Cookbook, published July 1, 2010
• The Brain in Love: 12 Lessons to Enhance Your Love Life, published July 14, 2009
• Healing the Hardware of the Soul: Enhance Your Brain to Improve Your Work, Love, and Spiritual Life, published September 16, 2008
• New Skills for Frazzled Parents: The Instruction Manual That Should Have Come With Your Child, published May 1, 2000
• How to Get Out of Your Own Way: A Step-by-Step Guide for Identifying and Achieving Your Goals, published July 1, 2005
• ADD in Intimate Relationships: A Comprehensive Guide for Couples, published July 1, 2005
• The Healing ADD Power Program, published March 1, 2005
• Images of Human Behavior: A Brain SPECT Atlas, published June 1, 2004
• Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, publish date unknown.

Amen's classification

The Amen's classification was created by Amen for classifying psychiatric patients into particular groups of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The Amen classification system defines six different subtypes of ADHD.

The Amen's classification consists of the following ADHD subtypes:

• Type I - Classic ADD (ADHD)
• Type II - Inattentive ADD
• Type III - Over-Focused ADD
• Type IV - Temporal Lobe ADD
• Type V - Limbic ADD
• Type VI - "Ring of fire" ADD

Criticism

SPECT

Neurologist Michael Greicius, who runs the Stanford University memory clinic, said: "SPECT scans are not sufficiently sensitive or specific to be useful in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease...The PBS airing of Amen's program provides a stamp of scientific validity to work which has no scientific validity."

Weight loss

Part of Amen's work is the relationship of diet and weight loss to ADHD and other disorders. The scientific validity of this aspect of his work have been criticized. It has been asserted that there are no clinical studies supporting his results. Although he has not conducted (nor cites) any research specifically validating his brain-based weight-loss scheme, Amen has responded by increasing the number of references in his latest book Change Your Brain, Change Your Body. The review of this book in the American Journal of Psychiatry underscores the fact that "he has not subjected his treatment approaches to the level of systematic scientific scrutiny expected for scientifically based medical practice".

In 2005, on Quackwatch.org, a nonprofit organization that investigates what they consider to be health-related frauds, myths, fads and fallacies, the retired military physician Dr. Harriet Hall criticized Amen for defying science and common sense, and for having turned into a big business selling vitamin supplements.

In a response to criticism, Amen has described his work as follows:

"The Amen Clinics tracks treatment response among its patients. 85% of our patients report a high degree of satisfaction with our services. We are not a typical psychiatric clinic. We typically see patients who have failed 3 or 4 other mental health professionals, and who have an average of 3.5 psychiatric disorders using standard DSM diagnostic measures. No one keeps response rates on such a complex diagnostic group, yet our results are very encouraging."

Bibliography

• The Amen Solution: The Brain Healthy Way to Get Thinner, Smarter, Happier (2011) ISBN 978-0307463616
• Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted (2010) ISBN 9780748124046
• Magnificent Mind at Any Age: Natural Ways to Unleash Your Brain's Maximum Potential (2009) ISBN 978-0307339102
• The Brain in Love: 12 Lessons to Enhance Your Love Life (2009) ISBN 978-0307587893
• Making a Good Brain Great: The Amen Clinic Program for Achieving and Sustaining Optimal Mental Performance (2006) ISBN 978-1400082094
• Healing Anxiety and Depression Amen and Lisa C. Routh (2004) ISBN 0425198448
• Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness (1999) ISBN 9780748114689

External links

• Amen Clinics