Daniel Amen: Education, Training, and Controversies

Daniel Amen, MD, is a well-known figure in psychiatry, recognized as a physician, double board-certified psychiatrist, international speaker, and the founder of Amen Clinics. He has been called "the most popular psychiatrist in America" and has authored over 30 books, including the #1 New York Times best seller, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life. Amen has also written, produced, and hosted 12 shows about the brain on public television.

Education and Career

Daniel Amen is a physician and psychiatrist. He is double board-certified in psychiatry. He founded Amen Clinics.

Amen's "Bright Minds" Approach

Amen emphasizes proactive brain health strategies. He suggests preventing or treating the 11 major risk factors that steal your mind. To remember them, he uses the acronym "Bright Minds."

B - Blood Flow

Exercise is key. Get your heart rate up.

R - Retirement and Aging

The prescription is learning something new.

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I - Inflammation

Take fish oil every day.

G - Genetics

If you have a genetic risk for something, you need to be more serious about that than the average person.

H - Head Injuries

Prevention is key. Avoid activities that could cause head injuries.

T - Toxins

Download an app called Think Dirty to scan your personal products and assess their toxicity.

M - Mental Health

Practice positive self-talk. Start the day with a positive affirmation.

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I - Immunity and Infection

Take vitamin D and include onions, mushrooms, and garlic in your diet to boost your immune system.

N - Neurohormone Deficiencies

Measure your hormones every year.

D - Diabesity

Focus on diet and exercise.

S - Sleep

Aim for seven hours of sleep each night.

Amen suggests that if you know your vulnerabilities you can target specific areas. He also suggests that you start with one thing, because if you do one thing you're likely to do two. And if you do two, you're likely to do four. He believes that your brain will respond.

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Online Courses

Amen Clinics offers a variety of online courses, including:

Healing ADD at Home: Understand and manage ADD.
Brain Warrior's Way: Master the Brain Warrior's Way.
Change Your Brain Masters: The Amen Clinics Method explained in a 12-week online course.
30-Day Happiness Challenge: Build your memory.
Concussion Rescue: Strategies to help heal your brain if you’ve had a concussion or traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Memory Rescue: Strategies to supercharge your brain, prevent memory loss, or rescue your memory.
Autism: A New Way Forward: Evidence-based lessons on Autism types, root causes, and interventions with world-renowned experts.
Brain Thrive By 5 (Pre-K - Grade 1): Teach children to love and care for their brains and minds.
Brain Thrive By 25 (With College Credit): This course will help you become the adult you want to be.
Brain Thrive by 25: A comprehensive 12-part online course.
Brain Health Professional Certification Course: Learn the techniques and methodologies for teaching brain health.
6 Weeks to Overcoming Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Grief: Learn more about the health of your brain body, and mind.
Brain Health Licensed Trainer Course: Learn how to take care of your brain and then share it with others.

SPECT Scans and Controversy

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. He prescribes both medication and non-medicative courses of treatment, depending on the case.

His use of SPECT scans has been a source of controversy. 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."

Cognitive neuroscience researcher Martha Farah and psychologist S. J. Gillihan have also criticized Amen's use of brain imaging. Neurologist Michael Greicius, director of the Stanford Center for Memory Disorders, stated, "The PBS airing of Amen's program provides a stamp of scientific validity to work which has no scientific validity." These programs have been described as infomercials for Amen's clinics. The program's depiction of the "wonders of ginkgo and other 'natural' products such as St. John's wort" was also criticized. Alternative-medicine skeptic and physician Harriet A. Hall and neurologist Robert A. Burton have also voiced concerns.

Books and Publications

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. 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.

Healing the Hardware of the Soul, written by Amen in 2008, was reviewed in the American Journal of Psychiatry by Andrew Leuchter. Leuchter said, "Dr. Amen makes a good case for the use of brain imaging to explain and medicalize mental disorders."

In 2013, Amen co-authored with pastor Rick Warren The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life, on "how to lead a healthy life". Amen was one of the people-others included Mark Hyman and Mehmet Oz-that Warren recruited to help devise the program. Warren encouraged adoption of the plan by all member churches in his network of Saddleback churches. According to Janice Norris, "The Daniel Plan is…more than a diet.

In 2017, Amen and his wife, Tana, published The Brain Warrior's Way: Ignite Your Energy and Focus, Attack Illness and Aging, Transform Pain into Purpose, which Harriet Hall reviewed; she wrote: "Much of the advice in this book is mainstream medical advice, and there are helpful practical hints like putting your food on a smaller plate and not shopping for food when you are hungry.

Media Appearances and Criticism

Amen has produced television programs about his theories. Another, "Magnificent Mind at Any Age with Dr. Daniel Amen", was aired before January 1, 2009.

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".

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