Daniel Amen

Daniel G. Amen, M.D. is a child and adult psychiatrist, self-help advisor, author and medical director of the Amen Clinic.^[1] 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.^[2] 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^{[citation needed]}.

Amen is a volunteer Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine.^[3] 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.

Criticism and response

Scientists and medical professionals have criticized the scientific validity of Amen's work, noting that there are no clinical studies supporting his claims. Although he has not conducted (nor cites) any research 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.^[4] In addition, 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".^[5]

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."^[6]

In 2005, on Quackwatch.org, a nonprofit organization that investigates what they consider to be health-related frauds, myths, fads and fallacies, Dr. Harriet Hall, a retired military physician, was far more forceful 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."^[4]

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." ^[7]

In turn, Quackwatch.org argues that "satisfaction rates" have nothing to do with success rates, and that Amen allegedly has never made data about either available for scrutiny. 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.^[4]

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.^{[8] [9][10]}

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

References

1. ^ "About Amen Clinics". http://amenclinics.com/ac/about. Retrieved 2007-08-17. 
2. ^ American Psychiatric Association - Awards
3. ^ http://directory.uci.edu/?amen,%20daniel
4. ^ ^{a b c} Hall, Harriet (2005, rev. 2007). "A Skeptical View of SPECT Scans and Dr. Daniel Amen". Quackwatch. http://quackwatch.org/06ResearchProjects/amen.html. Retrieved August 7, 2009 
5. ^ Leuchter, A. F. (2009). "Healing the Hardware of the Soul: Enhance Your Brain to Improve Your Work, Love, and Spiritual Life". American Journal of Psychiatry 166 (5): 625. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2009.08121843.  edit
6. ^ Burton, Robert (2008-05-12). "Brain Scam: Why is PBS airing Dr. Daniel Amen's self-produced infomercial for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease?". Salon.com. http://www.salon.com/mwt/mind_reader/2008/05/12/daniel_amen/. Retrieved 2008-05-12. 
7. ^ http://www.quackwatch.com/06ResearchProjects/amen_response.html
8. ^ Amen, Daniel; Wu, Joseph C.; Bracha, H. Stefan. "Functional neuroimaging in clinical practice". The Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry edited by Kaplan and Sadock 2000
9. ^ Incorvaia, JA; Mark-Goldstein BS; Tessmer D., eds. Brain SPECT Imaging and ADD in Understanding, Diagnosing, and Treating AD/HD in Children and Adolescents: An Integrative Approach. Jason Aronson, Inc, Northvale, New Jersey, 1999, pp.183-196.
10. ^ Reynolds, Cecil; and Elaine Fletcher-Janzen, eds. "Brain SPECT Imaging". Encyclopedia of Special Education, 2006.

External links

• Amen Clinics

Persondata
Name	Amen, Daniel G.
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Short description	American psychologist and self-help author
Date of birth
Place of birth
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