Daniel Amen believes that brain health is central to all health and success. When your brain works right, he says, you work right; and when your brain is troubled you are much more likely to have trouble in your life. His work is dedicated to helping people have better brains and better lives.
His online videos about brain and mental health have been viewed over 200 million times. Sharecare named him the web’s #1 most influential expert and advocate on mental health and the Washington Post called him the most popular psychiatrist in America.
Dr. Amen is a physician, board-certified child and adult psychiatrist, award-winning researcher, and 18-time national bestselling author. He is the Founder and CEO of Amen Clinics in Costa Mesa, Walnut Creek, and Encino, California, Bellevue, Washington, Washington, DC, Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, New York, NY, and Hollywood, FL.
Amen Clinics has the world’s largest database of functional brain scans relating to behavior, with over 225,000 SPECT scans and 10,000 QEEGs on patients from 150 countries.
Dr. Amen is the lead researcher on the world’s largest brain imaging and rehabilitation study on professional football players. His research has not only demonstrated high levels of brain damage in players, but also the possibility of significant recovery for many with the principles that underlie his work.
Together with Pastor Rick Warren and Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Amen is also one of the chief architects of “The Daniel Plan,” a program to get the world healthy through religious organizations that has been done in thousands of churches, mosques and synagogues.
Dr. Amen is the author or co-author of over 80 professional articles, nine book chapters, and over 40 books, including 18 national bestsellers and 12 New York Times bestsellers, including the #1 New York Times bestseller The Daniel Plan and the over one million copy bestseller Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, along with The End of Mental Illness, Healing ADD, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, The Brain Warrior’s Way, Memory Rescue, Your Brain Is Always Listening, and You, Happier. Change Your Brain Every Day will be released on March 21, 2023.
Dr. Amen’s published scientific articles have appeared in the prestigious journals of Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Molecular Psychiatry, PLOS One, Nature’s Translational Psychiatry, Nature’s Obesity, Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, Minerva Psichiatrica, Journal of Neurotrauma, American Journal of Psychiatry, Nuclear Medicine Communication, Neurological Research, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Primary Psychiatry, Military Medicine, and General Hospital Psychiatry.
In January 2016, his team’s research on distinguishing PTSD from TBI on over 21,000 SPECT scans was featured as one of the top 100 stories in science by Discover Magazine. In 2017, his team published a study on over 46,000 scans, showing the difference between male and female brains; and in 2018, his team published a study on how the brain ages on 62,454 SPECT scans.
Dr. Amen has written, produced, and hosted 15 national public television programs about brain health, which have aired more than 125,000 times across North America. In March 2021 his new show, Overcoming Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Grief started airing across North America.
Together with his wife Tana he has hosted The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast since 2015, with over 900 episodes and 12 million downloads. It has been listed as one of the top 20 all-time podcasts in Mental Health on Apple.
Together with Barry Goldstein, Dr. Amen has produced four brain enhancing music albums The Brain Warrior’s Way (2016), BRIGHT MINDS: Memory Rescue Music (2017), and Feel Better Fast and Make It Last (2018). Your Brain Is Always Listening (2021). The first 3 have been on Billboard’s Top Ten New Age Album charts with BRIGHT MINDS spending 45 weeks on the chart and was the #6 New Age Album of 2018. Feel Better Fast and Make It Last has spent 25 weeks on the charts and was the #3 New Age Album of 2019. Dr. Amen was also listed as one of the top 10 New Age Artists of 2018 and 2019.
Dr. Amen has appeared in movies, including Quiet Explosions, After the Last Round, and The Crash Reel and was a consultant for Concussion, starring Will Smith. He appeared in the docuseries, “Justin Bieber: Seasons” and has appeared regularly on Dr. Phil and The Dr. Oz Show. He has been featured on the Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show, CNN, and The Doctors, and appeared in the Emmy winning show, The Truth About Drinking.
He has also spoken around the world, with prestigious lectures in Canada, Brazil, Israel, and Hong Kong. He has spoken for the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), Harvard’s Learning and the Brain Conference, the Department of the Interior, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the Supreme Courts of Ohio, Delaware, and Wyoming, and large corporations, such as Merrill Lynch, Hitachi, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, GNC, and many others. In 2016 Dr. Amen gave one of the prestigious Talks at Google.
Dr. Amen’s work has been featured in New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Washington Post Magazine, MIT Technology, Newsweek, Time, Huffington Post, ABC World News, 20/20, BBC, London Telegraph, Parade Magazine, World Economic Forum, LA Times, Men’s Health, Bottom Line, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, LA Style, NPR, and many others.
Dr. Amen is married to Tana, the father of six children and five grandchildren to Elias, Emmy, Liam, Louie, and Haven. He is an avid table tennis player.
