Daniel Amen

Daniel G. Amen, M.D. is a child and adult psychiatrist, self-help guru, bestselling author and medical director of the Amen Clinic. He has done a great deal of work in evaluating psychiatric and neurological patients with the help of SPECT scanning, especially in the area of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and has received an award from the American Psychiatric Association but has also been criticized for expounding experimental and unproven methodology and treatment by some.

Career and work

Amen 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, Fairfield, California, Tacoma, Washington and Reston, Virginia.

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

Dr. Amen is the author of 23 books and a number of audio and video programs. Amen, together with The United Paramount Network and Leeza Gibbons, produced a show called The Truth About Drinking, on alcohol education for teenagers, which won an Emmy Award for the Best Educational Television Show. In 1998, Random House published Dr. Amen’s book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, which has been on the New York Times bestseller list and is translated into 13 languages.

He is also the author of:

1992: Don't Shoot Yourself in the Foot,

1997: New Skills for Frazzled Parents: The Instruction Manual That Should Have Come With Your Child,

Mind Coach: How to Teach Children & Teenagers to Think Positive & Feel Good,

2002: Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program That Allows You to See and Heal the 6 Types of ADD,

2003: The Mars and Venus Diet and Exercise Solution, The: Create the Brain Chemistry of Health, Happiness, and Lasting Romance,

2004: Clinician's Brain Science Toolbox,

Images of Human Behavior: A Brain SPECT Atlas,

2005: ADD in Intimate Relationships: A Comprehensive Guide for Couples,

How to Get Out of Your Own Way: A Step-by-Step Guide for Identifying and Achieving Your Goals,

What I Learned from a Penguin: A Story on How to Help People Change,

The Secrets of Successful Students,

Making a Good Brain Great: The Amen Clinic Program for Achieving and Sustaining Optimal Mental Performance,

2007: Sex on the Brain: 12 Lessons to Enhance Your Love Life,

Healing: The Brain-Soul Connection Anxiety Depression ADD,

2008: Healing the Hardware of the Soul: Enhance Your Brain to Improve Your Work, Love, and Spiritual Life,

Magnificent Mind at Any Age: Natural Ways to Unleash Your Brain's Maximum Potential,

2009: The Brain in Love: 12 Lessons to Enhance Your Love Life,

2010: Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted,

Change Your Brain, Change Your Body Daily Journal,

Change Your Brain, Change Your Body Cookbook,

and the co-author of:

2003: Healing Anxiety and Depression,

2009: This Is Your Brain on Joy: A Revolutionary Program for Balancing Mood, Restoring Brain Health, and Nurturing Spiritual Growth,

2010: This is Your Brain in Love: New Scientific Breakthroughs for a More Passionate and Emotionally Healthy Marriage.

The audiobook for Making A Good Brain Great received Audiofile Magazine’s Earphone Award (the audiobook industry equivalent to the Grammy Awards). Dr. Amen has made numerous media appearances including PBS TV and Radio Nationwide, Larry King Live, The View, The Today Show, Extra TV, MSNBC, Newsweek, MSNBC, Fox News and The NY Times.

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.

These subtypes were created using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging on patients who were known to have ADHD. Amen argues that differences seen in the imaging for sufferers of ADHD correspond to the new classification system he has created. A patient can have a range from none to all subtypes of ADHD under the Amen system.

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

Some scientists and medical professionals have criticized the scientific validity of Amen's work, claiming that there are no definitive clinical studies supporting his claims. In response, Dr. Amen has increased the number of references in his latest book Change Your Brain, Change Your Body. However, 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".

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 disease...The PBS airing of Amen's program provides a stamp of scientific validity to work which has no scientific validity."

In 2005, on Quackwatch.org a nonprofit organization that investigates what they consider health-related frauds, myths, fads and fallacies, Dr. Harriet Hall, a retired military physician, was far more strident and bellicose in her criticism:

"Amen's recommendations defy science, common sense and logic. I feel much worse about him now than I did when I wrote the piece because I went back and looked at his Web site again, and I'm just appalled by some of the things that are on it now. He's selling vitamin supplements and he's selling his own line of products. He's turned into big business."

Dr. Amen has responded by saying that,

"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." [2]

In turn, Quackwatch.com notes that "satisfaction rates" have nothing to do with success rates, and that Amen has never made data about either available for scrutiny. When made aware of this criticism, Amen said, "Cha-ching!" He then made a gesture whereby he held out his hand and rubbed his thumb against is index and middle fingers.

According to its website, Amen Clinics charges $3,375 for a "comprehensive evaluation," which includes the patient's history, two SPECT scans, a physician consultation, and a 30-minute treatment follow-up appointment. Follow-up scans after treatment are $795 each.

Amen also sells vitamins and supplements (and a weight-loss formula bearing his image) for well above retail price, a practice at odds with the standards set forth by the American Medical Association and in direct conflict with the oath taken by Distinguished Fellows of the American Psychiatric Association, which in part reads,

I further pledge to avoid commercialism in my professional life; to refrain from seeking the public eye for self-aggrandizement; to set fees commensurate with my services and adjust them to the circumstances of my patients; and to avoid any financial practice whatsoever that might debase my profession.

Current projects

Dr. Daniel Amen has completed his new book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body which has become a New York Times Bestseller as well as a top seller on Amazon.com, also releasing a self-produced PBS program under the same title. Despite popularity among consumers of self-help literature, some within the scientific and psychiatric communities remain critical of Amen's claims (see the review in American Journal of Psychiatry), noting that none of his claims has ever been validated.

External links

• Amen Clinics
• SPECT imaging at Mayo Clinic