Author: Daniel G. Amen M.D.

Amen is a board-certified psychiatrist who has built a chain of clinics around SPECT scans, a nuclear imaging technique he uses to diagnose and subtype conditions including attention deficit disorder and depression. Mainstream psychiatry rejects this: professional bodies and multiple reviews hold that SPECT cannot diagnose psychiatric illness, that the scans expose patients to radiation for no established benefit, and that the supporting evidence comes largely from his own clinics. The consultations are expensive, are not generally covered by insurance, and he sells supplements alongside them. His television specials have raised very large sums for American public broadcasting. The credential is genuine; the claim built on top of it is not accepted.