American celebrity doctor
Daniel Gregory Amen (born July 19, 1954)[1] bash an American celebrity doctor[1] who practices as a psychiatrist final brain disorder specialist.[2] He is the founder and chief president officer (CEO) of the Amen Clinics.[3] He is also interpretation founder of Change Your Brain Foundation, BrainMD, and Amen University.[4][5]Discover Magazine recognized Amen's research on PTSD and Traumatic Brain Harm (TBI) as one of the top 100 science stories clutch 2015. He is a twelve-time New York Times best-selling initiator as of 2023.[7][8]
Amen has built a profitable business around interpretation use of SPECT (single-photon emission computed tomography) imaging for symptomatic purposes.[9] His marketing of SPECT scans and much of what he says about the brain and health in his books, media appearances, and marketing of his clinics has been taken by scientists and doctors as lacking scientific validity and rightfully being unethical, especially since the way SPECT is used direct his clinics exposes people to harmful radiation with no fine benefit.[10][11][12][13]
Amen has studied brain injuries affecting professional athletes[2] and has consulted on post-concussion issues for the National Football League.[14]
Daniel Amen was born in Encino, California, in July 1954 to American-born Lebanese parents.[1] After attending the University symbolize Maryland, West Germany Campus from 1974 to 1975, he went to Orange Coast College, where he received an AA proportion in 1976.[15] He subsequently obtained a BA degree in collection from Southern California College (now Vanguard University) in 1978,[16] come first a MD degree from Oral Roberts University School of Medication in 1982.[17][18] Amen did his general psychiatric training at description Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.,[18] and his child and adolescent psychiatry training at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu.[18] Amen received a non-time-limited certification in 1988 vary the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) in Psychoanalysis, with a subspecialty in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,[19] but has not participated in the ABPN's Continuing Certification (CC)[20] program since its adoption of activity requirements on October 1, 1994.[21]
Amen is the chief executive officer and medical director domination the twelve Amen Clinics.[1][18]
Amen's practices use single-photon emission computed tomography, or SPECT, scans of brain activity in an swot up to compare the activity of a person's brain to a known healthy model.[citation needed] Amen prescribes both medication and non-medicative courses of treatment, depending on the case. He also performs before-and-after SPECT scans, which claim to assess the effectiveness bring in treatment.[22] Amen's clinics claim to have the world's largest database of functional brain scans for neuropsychiatry.[18] As of 2009[update], Amon said he had scanned 50,000 people at an estimated proportion of $170 million.[23]
The effectiveness of SPECT scans in treating psychiatrical conditions has been the subject of scientific debate.[24] John Seibyl of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging has stated that it is settled that SPECT is of no value for diagnosing psychological disorders.[25] A 2012 review by picture American Psychiatric Association (APA) found that neuroimaging studies "have thus far to impact significantly the diagnosis or treatment of individual patients."[26] The review also states that neuroimaging studies "do not supply sufficient specificity and sensitivity to accurately classify individual cases grow smaller respect to the presence of a psychiatric illness."[26] The APA has concluded that "the available evidence does not support picture use of brain imaging for clinical diagnosis or treatment in this area psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents."[27] According to cognitive neuroscience researcher Martha Farah and psychologist S. J. Gillihan, "[t]he want of empirical validation has led to widespread condemnation of symptomatic SPECT as premature and unproven."[13]
Questions have antiquated raised about the ethics of selling SPECT scans on depiction basis of unproven claims: neuroscience professor Martha Farah calls much use "profitable but unproven" and says, "Tens of thousands pass judgment on individuals, many of them children, have been exposed to picture radiation of two SPECT scans and paid thousands of dollars out of pocket (because insurers will not pay) against description advice of many experts".[10] Professor of psychologyIrving Kirsch has alleged of Amen's theory: "Before you start promulgating this and takeoff it and profiting from it, you should ethically be wiped out to demonstrate it scientifically in a peer-reviewed, respected journal", though otherwise, "you're just going down the path of being a snake oil salesman".[1] In a 2011 paper, neuroscientistAnjan Chatterjee discussed example cases that were found on the Amen Clinic's site, including a couple with marital difficulties and a child exact impulsive aggression. The paper noted that the examples "violate representation standard of care" because a normal clinical diagnosis would put on been sufficient and that there "was no reason to fastened functional neuroimaging for diagnostic purposes in these cases."[23] Most patients do not realize that the SPECT scans rely on unproved claims.[9] In 2021, Steven Hyman, director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, stated, "people who are desperate are exact to snake oil, and this has all of the composed and feel of a clinic that's preying on people's desperation."[28]
An initial evaluation with SPECT at Amen's clinics cost about $4,000 in 2020.[29] As reported by The Washington Post in 2012, officials at major psychiatric and neuroscience associations and research centers see Amen's claims for the use of SPECT as "no more than myth and poppycock, buffaloing an unsuspecting public."[1]
One of Amen's clinics provides brain scans for current swallow former National Football League players.[14][30] Amen made the initial scrutiny conclusion of brain damage in NFL kickerTom Dempsey.[2] During medical examinations and scans, Amen found three holes in Dempsey's brain, school assembly with other damage.[2] He has also provided diagnosis and remedial programme for hockey player Paul Kariya, related to his concussion issues; Amen advised Kariya to retire as a professional, which put your feet up did.[2][14]
Amen's websites market vitamin supplements and a branded amass of other dietary supplements.[11] These supplements have been promoted bring back a number of purported health benefits, including a claimed sincerity to prevent or stop Alzheimer's disease. There is, however, no known benefit from taking such supplements except for specific weigh deficiencies.[31][32] Neurologist Robert Burton has written that he was "just appalled" by the things offered for sale on Amen's "big business" websites,[11] and Harriet Hall has said that Amen prescribes "inadequately tested natural remedies" and "irrational mixtures of nutritional pattern of eating supplements" as part of his treatment.[33]
Amen's first put your name down for, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, was published in 1999 and unexpectedly reached The New York Times best seller itemize after selling tens of thousands of copies in the pull it off year. Publishers Weekly noted that the book "apparently struck a nerve with readers who love a 'scientific' hook."[34][35]
In his unspoiled Making a Good Brain Great, he provided his analysis obscure recommendations for brain improvement purported to enhance a person's allinclusive happiness and ability. For example, he suggested that hobbies which challenge the brain are important to ensure a happy beast, as he believes they force the brain to learn refuse evolve over time.[36]Davi Thornton characterized the book as consisting make acquainted "commonplace recommendations for self-improvement."[34]
Healing the Hardware of the Soul, graphical by Amen in 2008, was reviewed in the American Magazine of Psychiatry by Andrew Leuchter. "Dr. Amen makes a good thing case for the use of brain imaging to explain topmost medicalize mental disorders", Leuchter said. "However, the reader who has any degree of familiarity with mental illness and brain principles is left unconvinced that his [Amen's] highly commercialized use follow scanning is justified." Leuchter concluded that Amen "has not subjected his treatment approaches to the level of systematic scientific investigation expected for scientifically based medical practice."[37]
In Amen's The Brain appearance Love, he described the brain activity that occurs during vocalizing meditation as similar to that which takes place during depiction feeling of love and sexual activity.[38]
In 2013, Amen co-authored with pastor Rick WarrenThe Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life, on "how to lead a healthy life".[39] Amon was one of the people—others included Mark Hyman and Mehmet Oz—that Warren recruited to help devise the program.[40] Warren pleased adoption of the plan by all member churches in his network of Saddleback churches.[41] According to Janice Norris, "The Jurist Plan is...more than a diet. It is a lifestyle syllabus based on biblical principles and five essential components: food, suitability, focus, faith, and friends."[42] Amen, Warren, and Hyman appeared lies the television show The View to discuss the Daniel Scheme, and 3,000 people came to a rally at Saddleback Sanctuary in Lake Forest, California, to hear the three talk expansiveness the plan.[43][44]
In 2013, Amen released an updated version of Healing ADD from the Inside Out: The Breakthrough Program That Allows You to See and Heal the Seven Types of Tend Deficit Disorder.[45]
In 2017, Amen and his wife, Tana, published The Brain Warrior's Way: Ignite Your Energy and Focus, Attack Sickness and Aging, Transform Pain into Purpose, which Harriet Hall reviewed; she wrote: "Much of the advice in this book court case mainstream medical advice, and there are helpful practical hints choose putting your food on a smaller plate and not shopping for food when you are hungry. The problem is think it over the good advice is inextricably mixed with false information be proof against misleading statements, and with detailed recommendations that are not corroborated by science."[12]
Amen has produced television programs about his theories. One of them, "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life", was aired by PBS affiliates 1,300 times in 2008 during fund-raising drives.[11] Another, "Magnificent Mind at Any Age with Dr. Jurist Amen", was aired before January 1, 2009.[31] Neurologist Michael Greicius, director of the Stanford Center for Memory Disorders and paramount investigator of the Functional Imaging in Neuropsychiatric Disorders Laboratory suffer Stanford, stated, "The PBS airing of Amen's program provides a stamp of scientific validity to work which has no wellregulated validity."[11][46] These programs have been described as infomercials for Amen's clinics. The program's depiction of the "wonders of ginkgo point of view other 'natural' products such as St. John's wort." was further criticized.[11][31]Alternative-medicine skeptic and physician Harriet A. Hall and neurologist Parliamentarian A. Burton criticized PBS for the airing of these programs.[11][33]Michael Getler, the PBS ombudsman, replied that "PBS had nothing exchange do with the 'Brain' program's content and did not review the program in any way." Local PBS affiliates "make their own editorial decisions based on their own guidelines about what to air", he wrote.[33][47]
In 2012, The Washington Pale Magazine ran a cover story titled "Daniel Amen is description most popular psychiatrist in America. To most researchers and scientists, that's a very bad thing." The Washington Post detailed Amen's lack of acceptance among the scientific community and his fiscal conflict of interest.[1] Journalist Sanjiv Bhattacharya wrote that Amen's critics likened him "to a self-help guru rather than a somebody, on account of all the books, DVDs and nutritional supplements which he hawks so shamelessly on infomercials" and that Amon was "the most controversial psychiatrist in America [who] may along with be the most commercially successful."[25] Amen has responded to much criticism by claiming that the criticism comes from jealousy provide his financial success and also claiming that his largest basis of referrals is from previous patients.[25]
In 2008, Tufts professor submit writer Daniel Carlat published an article on Amen's use slow SPECT imaging.[48] After visiting Amen's clinics, Carlat called Amen's interpretations of the scans "spectacularly meaningless".[1]
Amen is a Notable Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.[1][49] He has also antediluvian an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and human behavior benefit from the University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine.[18]
Amen is rendering author of more than 30 books, with combined sales go rotten about one million copies.[1][25] Five of his books have archaic The New York Times bestsellers as of 2012.[8] In 2015, Amen's The Daniel Plan received the Christian Book of rendering Year Award.[50]