Mind-Body Healing
Turning adversity into healing with the Amen Method
Coming to terms with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and seeking help has opened a wide audience to the works of one man. His name is Dr. Daniel Amen and yes, he does in fact know what he is talking about.
He is a celebrity medical doctor who specializes in psychiatry and physical brain disorders. And now Amen shares through Edovo some of the ways a person can treat their TBI in prison. All one has to do is type in “Daniel Amen” in the dashboard of Edovo to have his Trauma Talks series available to them.
Amen considers TBI to be the silent epidemic because symptoms do not always present immediately. A TBI is defined as any damage to living brain tissues that is caused by an external force or penetrating head injury that disrupts the normal function of the brain.
Not all blows or jolts to the head result in a TBI, and the severity of a TBI may range from “mild” (brief change in mental status or consciousness) to “severe” (period of unconsciousness or amnesia), according to the Journal of Forensic Sciences.
Amen and his colleagues have found that TBI and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have various symptoms which often present with overlapping warning signs. Many go untreated for this simple reason: They have not had the opportunity to experience formalized treatments necessary for healing.
Amen’s team has a very explicit method for healing people. The process involves systematic evaluations for bio-psycho-socio-spiritual needs. They believe there is a connection in these four components of humanity. The Edovo series unravels what the processes look like.
Enter the SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography). The SPECT is an X-Ray of sorts for the brain. It provides specialized insight for Amen and his team to treat patients with TBI. The SPECT has the potential to add important clinical information to patient care in many different areas. According to an article in Psychology Today.
Amen and his clinic do “an in-depth evaluation, and then add brain SPECT imaging, which tells you three things: the areas of the brain that work well, the areas that are low in activity, and the areas that are high in activity.”
His logic follows: “When you don’t get physiological data, you don’t understand that depression is a cluster of symptoms. That means there are many different ways to get depressed.”
In using SPECT, medical practitioners can evaluate underlying brain system pathology in individual patients. This also allows a route for care through follow-up evaluations. In doing so, SPECT encourages innovative and alternative treatments for those suffering from TBI and PTSD, according to Amen.
When a person has a headache, they may take some aspirin. When they break an arm, they go to the doctor. “Psychiatry is the only field of medicine where it’s considered normal practice to treat an organ — in this case, the brain — without looking at it,” says Amen.
Given the success of Amen’s treatment in the outside world, wouldn’t it be great to bring the SPECT to Central California Women’s Facility? Until that day comes, Edovo has brought the information to us through this amazing series.
As they say, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
