Dr. Amen's Blog

I have received a lot of very thoughtful and interesting responses to the video blog I posted about the recent study on NFL players and dementia. Here is one from Dr. Rick Sponaugle, Medical Director of Florida Detox and Wellness Institute, that I would like to share with you:

“I have utilized Dr. Amen’s brilliant research and SPECT brain imaging in my addiction practice since 2004. Since then, I have treated many NFL and college level football players who developed Oxycontin addiction from their football injuries.

I encourage all of my professional wrestlers and football players to undergo SPECT imaging at the Amen Clinics a month or so after drug detoxification. Every football player and professional wrestler I have treated for opiate addiction, if they played through college level, NFL or WWE, came back from the Amen Clinic with really ugly, traumatic brain scans.

Most of the players suffered severe temporal lobe damage and subsequently exhibited rage issues, often with spontaneous panic attacks, some with depression. Their wives insisted that they suffered more from their husband’s rage issues, while some of the players considered the rage an occupational advantage, eventually they all admitted it got them into trouble. The players also think that it is normal to experience “deja vu” once a week, not once a year. [Read about temporal lobe trauma in Dr. Amen's Book, Healing Anxiety and Depression.]

With the tremendous advantage I have gained by intense study of Daniel Amen’s research, I have proven that these addicted football players and pro wrestlers, were in fact, using Oxycontin, more for the purpose of quiescing the mini-seizures in their damaged temporal lobes, than for treating their physical knee/back pain.

When treated effectively with high dose pharmaceutical grade GABA or anticonvulsant medication, the players/wrestlers no longer crave or “need” Oxycontin, nor do they abuse alcohol for its GABA A receptor effect.

Alcohol and Oxycontin “like” pain medication, eventually shut down pituitary gland function, creating multiple hormonal deficiencies that are causative for increased pain sensitivity, depression, chronic fatigue and disorders like “Leaky Gut Syndrome.

Hopefully after completing his NFL study, Dr. Amen will commence a study on professional wrestlers and soccer players.”

A new study out of Germany represents a major advance in neuroimaging, and in particular highlights the effectiveness of brain SPECT imaging in helping predict treatment response to antidepressant medication.  SPECT is the study we use here at the Amen Clinics.

Several previous studies have concluded that SPECT scans are helpful in diagnosing brain disorders, such as depression. But this trial is one of the first and largest to examine SPECT’s ability to predict whether or not a patient with depression will respond to a particular antidepressant.

The study, which appeared in the prestigious journal Psychiatry Research, involved nearly 100 participants with major depression. Their brains were scanned at the outset of the study and again four weeks later after treatment with an antidepressant. The research team concluded that SPECT is indeed highly effective in predicting treatment response.

When the prefrontal cortex works too hard, the medication Celexa was effective in calming it down and treating the depression.  When the prefrontal cortex was normal or low in activity, Celexa was not helpful.

These findings are very consistent with the literature from the QEEG literature as well.  I have noticed this exact same effect for nearly 18 years since I began using SPECT scans in my practice in 1991. The most important part of brain imaging is being able to predict treatment response. At the Amen Clinics, brain imaging helps us zero in on the best treatments for our patients, whether they have depression, ADD, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or any other brain problem.