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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by crazychickuk on November 23, 2004, at 18:54:25
?
Posted by Eljakeo25 on November 23, 2004, at 22:46:19
In reply to ANY TESTS TO DETERMINE WATS UP WITH OUR BRAIN 'S?, posted by crazychickuk on November 23, 2004, at 18:54:25
It is experimental, but there is a lot of data to suggest some findings for tailoring medication to disfunctioning parts of the brain. Its called a SPECT scan and as far as I know. 2 people do it. Kohn in Illinois and Dr. Amen in California. But since it is considered experimental, its expensive and you would have to do some serious arguing with your insurance company...any one knows if insurance pays for it??
Posted by pablo1 on November 23, 2004, at 23:34:19
In reply to SPECT SCAN by Dr. AMEN for example, posted by Eljakeo25 on November 23, 2004, at 22:46:19
$3,000 specifically. I checked into fMRI scans with my local big city university med center & they charge a whole heck of a lot more like $4,500/scan versus $1,000/scan for the radioactive tracer type SPECT scan at Amen where they are accustomed to two scans plus an evaluation at that 3 grand fixed fee & others would probably look at you funny if you asked for something similar & maybe charge something like 10 grand in the end.
Posted by crazychickuk on November 24, 2004, at 2:57:13
In reply to Re: SPECT SCAN by Dr. AMEN for example, posted by pablo1 on November 23, 2004, at 23:34:19
im in the uk.. but can a pet scan determine whats wrong? and if one has one every so often cant it determine if the meds r right for that person?
Posted by pablo1 on November 24, 2004, at 10:16:41
In reply to Re: SPECT SCAN by Dr. AMEN for example, posted by crazychickuk on November 24, 2004, at 2:57:13
I'm not sure about PET scans. SPECT shows the blood flow in the brain where there is underactivity & overactivity by using radioactive injection as a tracer in the blood. fMRI is also supposed to show blood flow. Amen and his followers are the only people to use scans for diagnosis of 'normal' psychiatric disorders. Most hospitals only use it for brain injuries or tumors & such, perhaps just because it's so expensive. There are lots of research projects done with the equiptment studying thinking process & emotions & such. Amen is also the only one to claim to be able to know which drugs will fix underactivity or overactivity in certain parts of the brain. I think his logic mostly makes sense so you could theoretically get any good neurologist to interpret a scan & say if you have depression or anxiety or ADD, etc. Amen uses some cool software to make the scan info more readable also which others may not have anything similar. You can read all about it & see some images here: http://www.brainplace.com/bp/atlas/default.asp
He is sort of a slick salesman and doesn't work with research universities to prove his findings so take that into consideration but I read one of his books & it all makes perfect sense to me.
This is the end of the thread.
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