Monthly Archives: February 2008

We have had an amazing response to our Internet preview and chat for the new PBS special, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life.  We have 1250 seats for the prescreening Monday at 6PM PST.  We sent out inviations Monday and tonight we have confirmed 1150 responses.  If you want to view it online send an email to PBS@amenclinics.com for a password to join the fun.  Of course, check your local PBS listings and if you don’t see it, encourage your station to carry it.

 Here is one of the first reviews, descriptions of the new PBS special from KWSU.   

A healthy brain is key to a great quality of life. The brain, of course, figures in everything we do – our work life, our relationships, the way we feel and the way we perceive the world. Any damage to the brain, through aging, substance abuse, trauma or other surprising factors – can affect our quality of life adversely. At the same time, making an effort to maintain a healthy brain through activities and protective behaviors that keep it youthful and vital can make every other aspect of your life more positive and more enjoyable. In Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, best-selling author, psychiatrist and brain-imaging specialist Daniel G. Amen, MD demonstrates how to optimize mental performance and overcome self-defeating behaviors like depression, ADD, and anxiety. For over 20 years Dr. Amen has been helping people heal common mental issues like Depression, Anxiety, Attention Deficit Disorder, Impulsive Behavior and other problems by addressing the health of the brain. Dr Amen calls the brain “The Hardware of the Soul.” In this groundbreaking special, Dr. Amen shows us in simple language how our brain works, how damage (through bumps, falls, substance abuse, diet, aging, and other factors) can reveal itself in our negative behaviors, and how to improve brain health and achieve optimum results. Included in the program is Dr. Amen’s prescription to prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease! His many tips and tools to help make your brain as healthy as it can be – that he dispenses liberally throughout the program – are all easily done by anyone, sometimes startling in their “I can do that” simplicity.

From The Journal of Sleep Research comes a fascinating study on how modafinil (Provigil) work.

Here’s the scientific abstract.  To investigate the effects of a wake-promoting drug, modafinil on regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in healthy volunteers, we performed (99m)Tc-ethylcysteinate dimer single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) before and after modafinil or placebo administration. Twenty-one healthy subjects received single doses of 400 mg modafinil or placebo in a double blind randomized crossover study design. Administrations of modafinil or placebo in a subject were separated by a 2-week washout. Brain SPECT was performed twice before and 3 h after modafinil or placebo administration. For statistical parametric mapping analysis, all SPECT images were spatially normalized to the standard SPECT template and then smoothed using a 12-mm full width at half-maximum Gaussian kernel. The paired t-test was used to compare pre- versus post-modafinil and pre- versus post-placebo SPECT images. Differences in rCBF between post-modafinil and post-placebo conditions were also tested.

Modafinil decreased Epworth and Stanford sleepiness scales whereas placebo did not. The post-modafinil condition was associated with increased rCBF in bilateral thalami and dorsal pons, whereas the post-placebo condition showed increased rCBF in a smaller area of the dorsal pons when compared with the drug naïve baseline condition.

Compared with the post-placebo condition, the post-modafinil condition showed higher rCBF in bilateral frontopolar, orbitofrontal, superior frontal, middle frontal gyri, short insular gyri, left cingulate gyrus, left middle/inferior temporal gyri, left parahippocampal gyrus, and left pons. In healthy volunteers, modafinil increased wakefulness and rCBF in the arousal-related systems and in brain areas related to emotion and executive function.

Ref: Joo EY, Tae WS, Jung KY, Hong SB.  Cerebral blood flow changes in man by wake-promoting drug, modafinil: a randomized double blind study.  J Sleep Res. 2008 Mar;17(1):82-88.  Department of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

I spent the day yesterday at Fort Carson in Colorado, speaking to colleagues about the use of SPECT imaging in traumatic brain injury.   As you likely know, brain injuires are the signature wound of the Iraq War.  15% of soldiers have suffered brain injuries, many with long term damage.  

In many ways going to Fort Carson was like coming home.  I was an infantry medic during the Vietnam War, and did my psychiatric training at Walter Reed in Washington, DC and Tripler in Hawaii and, after my training was the chief of Mental Health at Fort Irwin in the mojave Desert.  Soldiers hold a special place in my heart.

At Fort Carson, the nuclear medicine department, headed by Col. Reed Smith, MD have been using SPECT for the last 10 months with great results.   Dr. Smith took my 5 day brain SPECT course for clinicians last summer.  When I found out where he was from I offered to help.  It was so gratifying to see how he was using the technology and how helpful it had been to soldiers, their families and to clinicans.  I urged him to start doing before and after scans to see how their treatments were working.  In the military, follow up care can be a challenge because soldiers are often transfered or the ones with head injuries leave the service and are picked up by the VA.  But they are making exciting progress.

Of course, there are skeptics, but once they see the power and extensive body of research (over 72 studies on over 3,000 patients) that underlies brain SPECT in brain injury, they usually become converted.

Have a blessed day,

Daniel