We would like to welcome listeners of Dr. Caroline Leaf’s podcast, Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess. Thank you for visiting our page to learn more about Amen Clinics.
You can contact us using the form on this page or by calling us. Be sure to let us know that you heard about Amen Clinics from Dr. Leaf’s Podcast. And if you schedule an appointment, use the following code for a 10% discount.
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, anxious, or inattentive, so you get diagnosed with depression, anxiety or ADHD and walk out with a prescription forantidepressants, anti-anxiety pills or stimulant medication. Without looking at the brain with functional brain imaging tools, clinicians will never be able to understand what is going on inside your brain and which treatments would be most effective for you.
How Brain Scans Help You Get the Right Diagnosis and Most Effective Treatment
Brain scans can give psychiatrists and other mental health professionals more information to help their patients heal faster. At Amen Clinics, we use leading-edge brain imaging technology called brain SPECT imaging 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 brain type is so critical because each type requires individualized treatment.
With the world’s largest database of functional brain scans — 170,000 and growing — from patients from all 50 states and 150 countries, our physicians can 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, brain SPECT 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 SCAN
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 SCAN
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