We Still Not Know Much About Mental Health

Are Psychiatrists Stuck In The Past Or Do We Still Not Know Much About Mental Health

By Lana Gilbert on November 15, 2017

https://www.illumeably.com/dr-amen/

With all the technological advancements in the past hundred years, it is shocking to think that the psychiatric practices used to diagnose Abraham Lincoln’s depression in 1840 are still the main practices used by psychiatrists today. While talking to patients and assessing symptoms can be effective in diagnosing patients with mental health issues, Dr. Daniel Amen, a psychiatrist and brain disorder specialist, says solely depending on that method is like throwing darts in the dark at patients.

After years of feeling like he was doing a disservice to his patients, Dr. Amen added SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) to his arsenal to perform deep scans of the brain while diagnosing his patients. SPECT is a nuclear imaging test that measures blood flow, and Dr. Amen uses it to measure the blood flow in his patients’ brains.

Many professionals in the psychiatry field have criticized Dr. Amen’s use of SPECT. In fact some of the nation’s most prominent medical figures have called Amen’s claims of SPECT a myth. However, Dr. Amen suggests that his vast experience with imaging (including over 87,000 brain scans) only bolsters SPECT’s effectiveness.

Dr. Amen even has a personal anecdote about SPECT that involves his nephew, Andrew. Dr. Amen’s sister-in-law, Sherry, informed him that Andrew attacked a little girl on the baseball field for no reason. Sherry also found several drawings in Andrew’s room, and one included a picture of Andrew shooting other children. After asking Andrew a series of questions, Dr. Amen’s first instinct was to scan Andrew’s brain. The SPECT scan revealed a tumor and Dr. Amen urged local doctors to remove it immediately. Had the tumor not been detected, Andrew would have passed away within 6 months. However, after a successful surgery, Andrew returned to the normal and loving boy he once was.

Whether you believe in Dr. Amen’s SPECT methodologies or not, Kirsch, a Harvard psychologist says that SPECT scans may have a placebo effect on patients. In other words, expensive scans and good counseling advice may lead to therapeutic recovery even if the scans are bogus. Regardless, most psychiatrists would agree that there is still a lot of research to be done in the field. If you can afford Dr. Amen’s scans, then they are worth a shot. However, if $3,500 sounds too hefty, it might be more worthwhile investing in Dr. Amen’s much cheaper New York Times Bestseller book, which is filled with helpful counseling tips, here (http://amzn.to/2hAWf6Z).

TED  The most important lesson from 83,000 brain scans with Daniel Amen

http://tedtalkspsychology.com/important-lesson-83000-brain-scans-daniel-amen/

Pre-thinking:

Here is a controversial TEDX. “In this talk Daniel Amen says “ I’m going to give you the single most important lesson my colleagues and I have learned from looking at 83,000 brain scans.” That is “when you have the privilege of changing someone’s brain you not only change his or her life you have the opportunity to change generations to come.” There is a great deal of controversy about what Amen does with diagnoses and treatment however, while John Seibyl of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging has stated that there is no debate that SPECT is not valuable for diagnosing psychological disorders;  a 2012 review by the American Psychiatric Association found that neuroimaging studies “have yet to impact significantly the diagnosis or treatment of individual patients.”

 

Why you should watch:

Amen’s practices use single-photon emission computed tomography, or SPECT, scans of brain activity in an attempt to compare the activity of a person’s brain to a known healthy model. Amenprescribes both medication and non-medicative courses of treatment, depending on the case. He also performs before-and-after SPECT scans, which claim to assess how well treatment is working. Amen is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He has also been an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and human behavior in the University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine. However, in 2012, The Washington Post Magazine ran a cover story titled “Daniel Amen is the 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 thescientific community and his monetary conflict of interest.

 Who Is He?

Daniel Gregory Amen is an American psychiatrist, a brain disorder specialist, director of the Amen Clinics, and a ten-times New York Times bestselling author. He received his undergraduate biology degree from Southern California College in 1978[11] and his medical degree from Oral Roberts University School of Medicine in 1982.[12][13] Amen did his general psychiatric training at theWalter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.,[13] and his child and adolescent psychiatrytraining at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu.[13] Amen fulfilled 200 hours of training to obtain his radioactive materials license from the Institute of Nuclear Medicine Education. He then carried out the required 1,000 hours of clinical supervision in reading scans.[2] Amen is double board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in General Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

 Discussion Questions:

1. As a student in training for X-ray technician, his professors said ‘How do you know, unless you look?’. Should this “Look” become routine in treating psychiatric illnesses?
2. Why did Amen “fall in love with psychiatry?
3. What is SPECT – Single-photon emission computed tomography – and what does it do?
4. SPECT basically tells us three things about the brain good activity, too little, or too much. What does this mean? Explain to someone your thinking for your answer.
5. “Did you know that psychiatrists are the only medical specialists that virtually never look at the organ they treat? Think about it, cardiologists look, neurologists look orthopedic doctors look; virtually every other Medical Specialties look. Psychiatrists guess.” Do you think this is true? Why or why not?
6. A man says that mild traumatic brain injury leads to major behavioral changes. What evidence does he use to support this statement?

Making the Connections:

Books by Daniel Amen

Change your brain, change your life

Healing ADD Revised Edition: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 7 Types of ADD 

Healing Anxiety and Depression: Based on Cutting-Edge Brain Imaging Science