We Take The Guesswork Out of Psychiatry
When your brain works right, you work right. When your brain is troubled, you have trouble in your life. Symptoms of depression, anxiety, ADHD, PTSD, memory loss, and other mental health issues are signs of a troubled brain.
But psychiatry is the only medical field that does NOT look at the organ they treat. Think about it, if you have crushing heart pain, your doctor will scan your heart. But if you have crushing depression, no one will ever look at your brain.
How Can You Know What’s Going On Inside Your Brain If No One Ever Looks?
Psychiatrists typically diagnose mental health issues like depression, anxiety, ADHD, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) based on symptoms clusters. For example, you tell your doctor you feel depressed or anxious or inattentive, so you get diagnosed with depression or anxiety or ADHD and walk out with a prescription for antidepressants or anti-anxiety pills or stimulant medication. Without looking at the brain with functional brain imaging tools, clinicians will never be able to know the underlying brain patterns of the people they treat. So they can’t know the root cause of your symptoms.
And they can’t know which type of treatment would be most effective for you. For example, one large study found that more than half of depressed patients did not experience full remission of their symptoms after taking antidepressants. In part, this is because mental illnesses are NOT simple or single disorders. One size does NOT fit all. Treatment that works for one person won’t work for everybody, and it could even make you worse!
How Brain Scans Help You Get the Right Diagnosis and Most Effective Treatment
Brain scans can give psychiatrists more information to help their patients more effectively. At Amen Clinics, we use leading-edge brain imaging technology called SPECT to help identify patterns in the brain that are associated with mental health conditions.
For example, brain imaging has helped us identify:
- 7 types of anxiety and depression
- 7 types of ADD/ADHD
- 6 types of addiction
Knowing your type is so critical because each type requires individualized treatment. With the world’s largest database of functional brain scans — 200,000 and growing — from patients from all 50 states and 155 countries, our physicians are able to more accurately diagnose conditions like depression, anxiety, ADHD, bipolar disorder, OCD, memory loss, PTSD and related conditions than any other healthcare professionals.
How Brain Imaging Helps You Get a Personalized Treatment Plan with Proven Results
Since 1989, Amen Clinics has used brain imaging to help thousands of people overcome mental disorders with targeted solutions that are proven to produce higher than average success rates. We use a brain imaging technology called SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) that evaluates blood flow and activity in the brain.
Basically, SPECT brain scans show three things: healthy activity, too little activity, or too much activity. Then based on what we see, our job is to balance your brain—to calm it down if it is working too hard or stimulate it if it is underactive.
HEALTHY SPECT Brain Scans
On SPECT brain scans, the surface of a healthy brain looks smooth with full and symmetrical blood flow and activity. This tells us that the brain is working the way it is supposed to.
UNHEALTHY SPECT Brain Scans
This SPECT brain scan of an unhealthy brain reveals many “holes” on the surface, which represents areas of low blood flow and poor activity because of damage from substance and alcohol abuse.
In our clinics, brain scans are part of a comprehensive brain-body approach to treatment that involves the least toxic, most effective strategies. Based on brain scan results, we can tailor treatment—such as natural supplements, nutrition, exercise, helpful forms of therapy, and medication (when necessary)— for your specific needs.
More Ways Brain Scans Can Help
In addition to providing more accurate diagnosis and treatment plan, brain imaging helps our patients in several other ways, including:
- Helps eliminate the shame and stigma associated with mental illness
- Helps families understand that their loved one’s symptoms are biological, not psychological
- Follow-up scans show when treatment is working, so people are more likely to stick with it for better healing
MENTAL ILLNESS. IT’S NOT YOU. IT’S YOUR BRAIN.
- Locations
- Atlanta Metro Area
5901 Peachtree-Dunwoody Rd NE
Suite C65, Atlanta, GA 30328 - Chicago Metro Area
2333 Waukegan, Suite 150
Bannockburn, IL 60015 - Dallas Metro Area
7301 State Highway 161, Suite 170
Irving, TX 75039 - Los Angeles Metro Area
5363 Balboa Blvd., Suite 100
Encino, CA 91316 - Miami/Ft. Lauderdale Metro Area
200 South Park Road,
Suite 140 Hollywood, FL 33021 - New York Metro Area
228 E. 45th Street, Suite 410
New York, NY 10017 - Orange County Metro Area
3150 Bristol St., Suite 400
Costa Mesa, CA 92626 - Phoenix/Scottsdale Metro Area
14500 North Northsight Blvd.,
Suite 113 Scottsdale, AZ 85260 - San Francisco Bay Area
350 N. Wiget Lane, Suite 105
Walnut Creek, CA 94598 - Seattle Metro Area
545 Andover Park West, Suite 101
Tukwila, WA 98188 - Washington D.C. Metro Area
10701 Parkridge Blvd., Suite 110
Reston, VA 20191