Daniel Amen

Daniel Gregory Amen (born July 19, 1954) is an American celebrity doctor who practices as a psychiatrist and brain disorder specialist as director of the Amen Clinics.

Daniel Amen was born in Encino, California, in July 1954 to American-born Lebanese parents.

After attending the University of Maryland, West Germany Campus from 1974 to 1975, he went to Orange Coast College, where he received an AA degree in 1976.

He subsequently obtained a BA degree in biology from Southern California College (now Vanguard University) in 1978, and an MD degree from Oral Roberts University School of Medicine in 1982.

Amen did his general psychiatric training at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and his child and adolescent psychiatry training at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu.

Amen is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Psychiatry, with a subspecialty in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Amen is the chief executive officer and medical director of the twelve Amen Clinics.

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.

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 of treatment.

Amen's clinics claim to have the world's largest database of functional brain scans for neuropsychiatry.

, Amen said he had scanned 50,000 people at an estimated cost of $170 million.

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.

Amen's first book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, was published in 1999 and unexpectedly reached The New York Times best seller list after selling tens of thousands of copies in the first year.

Publishers Weekly noted that the book "apparently struck a nerve with readers who love a 'scientific' hook."

In his book Making a Good Brain Great, he provided his analysis and recommendations for brain improvement purported to enhance a person's overall happiness and ability.

In a 2011 paper, neuroscientist Anjan Chatterjee discussed example cases that were found on the Amen Clinic's website, including a couple with marital difficulties and a child with impulsive aggression.

The paper noted that the examples "violate the standard of care" because a normal clinical diagnosis would have been sufficient and that there "was no reason to obtain functional neuroimaging for diagnostic purposes in these cases."

Most patients do not realize that the SPECT scans rely on unproven claims.

In 2021, Steven Hyman, director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, stated, "people who are desperate are vulnerable to snake oil, and this has all of the look and feel of a clinic that's preying on people's desperation."

He is a five-time New York Times best-selling author as of 2012.

Amen has built a profitable business around the use of SPECT (single-photon emission computed tomography) imaging for diagnostic purposes.

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 have been condemned by scientists and doctors as lacking scientific validity and as being unethical, especially since the way SPECT is used in his clinics exposes people to harmful radiation with no clear benefit.

Amen has studied brain injuries affecting professional athletes and has consulted on post-concussion issues for the National Football League.

A 2012 review by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) found that neuroimaging studies "have yet to impact significantly the diagnosis or treatment of individual patients."

The review also states that neuroimaging studies "do not provide sufficient specificity and sensitivity to accurately classify individual cases with respect to the presence of a psychiatric illness."

The APA has concluded that "the available evidence does not support the use of brain imaging for clinical diagnosis or treatment of psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents."

According to cognitive neuroscience researcher Martha Farah and psychologist S. J. Gillihan, "[t]he lack of empirical validation has led to widespread condemnation of diagnostic SPECT as premature and unproven."

Questions have been raised about the ethics of selling SPECT scans on the basis of unproven claims: neuroscience professor Martha Farah calls such use "profitable but unproven" and says, "Tens of thousands of individuals, many of them children, have been exposed to the radiation of two SPECT scans and paid thousands of dollars out of pocket (because insurers will not pay) against the advice of many experts".

Professor of psychology Irving Kirsch has said of Amen's theory: "Before you start promulgating this and marketing it and profiting from it, you should ethically be bound to demonstrate it scientifically in a peer-reviewed, respected journal", as otherwise, "you're just going down the path of being a snake oil salesman".

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."

One of Amen's clinics provides brain scans for current and former National Football League players.

Amen made the initial diagnosis of Brain Damage in NFL kicker Tom Dempsey.

During medical examinations and scans, Amen found three holes in Dempsey's brain, along with other damage.

He has also provided diagnosis and therapy for hockey player Paul Kariya, related to his concussion issues; Amen advised Kariya to retire as a professional, which he did.

Amen's websites market vitamin supplements and a branded range of other dietary supplements.

These supplements have been promoted for a number of purported health benefits, including a claimed ability to prevent or stop Alzheimer's disease.

There is, however, no known benefit from taking such supplements except for specific substance deficiencies.

Neurologist Robert Burton has written that he was "just appalled" by the things offered for sale on Amen's "big business" websites, and Harriet Hall has said that Amen prescribes "inadequately tested natural remedies" and "irrational mixtures of nutritional diet supplements" as part of his treatment.

An initial evaluation with SPECT at Amen's clinics cost about $4,000 in 2020.