Amen Clinic

Amen Clinics, Inc is a group of 4 neuropsychiatric clinics founded by Daniel G. Amen which use (SPECT) single photon emission computed tomography to diagnose and treat numerous mental disorders.

Amen Clinics and SPECT

Dr. Amen claims it is possible to use single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) to help diagnose and manage cases of brain trauma, underachievement, school failure, depression, obsessive compulsive disorders, anxiety, ADD, aggressiveness, cognitive decline, and brain toxicity from drugs or alcohol.

Through taking an image of the brain Amen believes it is possible to notice which portions of the brain are out of balance and hence make a more accurate diagnosis of problems and prescriptions for correcting them. Dr. Amen has said that "Psychiatrists remain the only medical specialists that never look at the organ they treat."cite web | title = About Amen Clinics | url = http://amenclinics.com/ac/about | accessdate = 2007-08-17]

Amen Clinics have the world’s largest database of functional brain scans used in psychiatric medicine, now totaling over 40,000 scans collected over more than two decades. It has locations in Newport Beach, California; Fairfield, California; Tacoma, Washington, and Reston, Virginia.

Controversy

While the Amen Clinic claims, via their website and books that they are able to create better and more effective treatment plans for patients due to SPECT imagining, the American Psychiatric Association has questioned the clinical appropriateness of Amen's use of SPECT, stating "The clinical utility of neuroimaging techniques for planning of individualized treatment has not yet been shown." To date the Amen Clinic has not shown that patients using his treatment approach have better outcomes.cite web
url=http://www.quackwatch.com/06ResearchProjects/amen.html
title=A Skeptical View of SPECT Scans and Dr. Daniel Amen
first=Harriet
last=Hall
publisher=Quackwatch.com
date=2008-01-30]

ee also

* SPECT
* Amen Classification

References