About Daniel G. Amen, MD

The Washington Post has called Dr. Daniel G. Amen the most popular psychiatrist in America, and Sharecare, a digital health company designed to help people manage their health in one place, named him the web’s most influential expert and advocate on mental health.

Dr. Amen is a physician, double board–certified psychiatrist, 10-time New York Times bestselling author, and international speaker. He is the founder of Amen Clinics in Costa Mesa, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, California; Bellevue, Washington; Reston, Virginia; Atlanta; New York; and Chicago. Amen Clinics have one of the highest published success rates treating complex psychiatric issues, and they have built the world’s largest database of functional brain scans, totaling more than 135,000 scans on patients from 111 countries.

Dr. Amen is the lead researcher on the world’s largest brain imaging and rehabilitation study of professional football players. His research has not only demonstrated high levels of brain damage in players, it has also shown the possibility of significant recovery for many with the principles that underlie his work.

Together with Pastor Rick Warren and Mark Hyman, MD, Dr. Amen is also one of the chief architects of Saddleback Church’s Daniel Plan, a program to get the world healthy through religious organizations.

Dr. Amen is the author or coauthor of more than 70 professional articles, seven book chapters, and more than 30 books, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers The Daniel Plan and Change Your Brain, Change Your Life; as well as Magnificent Mind at Any Age; Change Your Brain, Change Your Body; Use Your Brain to Change Your Age; Healing ADD; The Brain Warrior’s Way; The Brain Warrior’s Way Cookbook; Captain Snout and the Super Power Questions; and Memory Rescue.

Dr. Amen’s published scientific articles have appeared in the prestigious journals Brain Imaging and Behavior, Nature’s Molecular Psychiatry, PLOS ONE, Nature’s Translational Psychiatry, Nature’s Obesity, the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, Minerva Psichiatrica, Journal of Neurotrauma, the American Journal of Psychiatry, Nuclear Medicine Communications, Neurological Research, Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Primary Psychiatry, Military Medicine, and General Hospital Psychiatry. His research on posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury was recognized by Discover magazine in its Year in Science issue as one of the “100 Top Stories of 2015.”

Dr. Amen has written, produced, and hosted 12 popular shows about the brain on public television. He has appeared in movies, including After the Last Round and The Crash Reel, and in Emmy Award–winning television shows, such as The Truth About Drinking and The Dr. Oz Show. He was a consultant on the movie Concussion, starring Will Smith. He has also spoken for the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), Harvard’s Learning & the Brain Conference, the Department of the Interior, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and the Supreme Courts of Delaware, Ohio, and Wyoming. Dr. Amen’s work has been featured in Newsweek, Time magazine, the Huffington Post, the BBC, the Guardian, Parade magazine, the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Men’s Health, and Cosmopolitan.

Dr. Amen is married to Tana. He is the father of four children and grandfather to Elias, Emmy, Liam, and Louie. He is also an avid table tennis player.