10 Ways Brain SPECT Imaging Changes Mental Health Care

In this week's episode, Dr. Amen & Tana sit down to discuss the importance of brain SPECT Imaging for mental health care. Seeing your brain scan helps you understand that mental health issues is not a "mental" health condition, but rather a brain health issue. 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. 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.