Is Psychiatry Looking in the Wrong Place? A Radical Rethink of Brain Health with Dr. Daniel Amen | E215

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Why is psychiatry the only medical specialty that doesn't look at the organ it treats? In this episode, Dr. Daniel Amen joins me to challenge how mental health is diagnosed and treated — and to make a compelling case that "depression" is as vague a diagnosis as "chest pain."

Dr. Amen is a double-board-certified psychiatrist, 18-time New York Times bestselling author, and founder of Amen Clinics, where his team has performed nearly 300,000 SPECT brain scans — the largest functional brain imaging database in the world.

We dig into what these scans actually reveal: hidden traumatic brain injuries patients never reported, the inflammatory aftermath of COVID, why SSRIs work for some and fail for others, and why the brain you have today is not the brain you're stuck with.

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00:00 - Introduction

01:42 - Psychiatry's Missing Link: The Organ of Treatment

03:22 - The Divergence of Neurology and Psychiatry

05:18 - Beyond Symptoms: Patterns of Brain Health

08:34 - Machine Learning and Autism Insights

10:45 - The Role of the Cerebellum in Thought Coordination

12:46 - The Impact of Undiagnosed Traumatic Brain Injury

14:58 - Reversing Damage: NFL Brain Study Results

16:26 - What SPECT Imaging Reveals About Metabolic Activity

17:38 - COVID-19 and Infectious Causes of Psychiatric Issues

22:11 - Neuroplasticity: Growing a Healthier Brain at Any Age

25:54 - New Technologies: 40 Hz Light and Sound Stimulation

28:27 - Metabolic Health: How Weight Affects Brain Volume

30:25 - Chronic Stress and the Overactive Limbic Brain

31:38 - Predicting Suicide Risk Through Imaging

33:41 - Volunteering and the Default Mode Network

35:01 - Concerns Over Psilocybin and Marijuana Scans

40:12 - Chronic Pain: Breaking the "Doom Loop"

43:12 - Lightning Round: Daily Habits for a Better Brain

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Daniel G. Amen, MD is a double board-certified psychiatrist, clinical neuroscientist, and brain imaging specialist whose pioneering clinical use of SPECT (single-photon emission computed tomography) has built the world's largest functional brain imaging database, with nearly 300,000 scans on patients from 155 countries. A graduate of Southern California College (now Vanguard University), Dr. Amen earned his medical degree from Oral Roberts University School of Medicine. His training includes a general psychiatric residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu. Currently, Dr. Amen serves as founder and CEO of Amen Clinics, with eleven locations across the United States, and is the founder of BrainMD and Amen University.

He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a multiple-time New York Times bestselling author whose books have been translated into 50 languages, and the lead researcher on the world's largest brain imaging and rehabilitation study on professional football players. His work has been published in Molecular Psychiatry, Translational Psychiatry, PLOS One, and the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences.

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