I made an appointment at the Amen Clinic in NYC. This involves a two hour intake interview over zoom followed by two days in the clinic itself. The first day there are two brain scans, using radioactive dye, to observe the brain function. These are not regular MRIs, one is a PET scan, the other another sophisticated scan. Full and comprehensive blood chemistry is also done.
The second day is a two hour long written psych eval multiple choice test as my daughter received in hospital during her second hospitalization. It’s done to determine underlying issues such as discreet psychosis, neurosis, personality disorder, anxiety levels, etc.
Next step is a few days later another two hour long virtual zoom with a psychiatrist who has now received all your medical information from other doctors (along with prior brain scans if any, psychiatrists, medication, etc.) and a plan of therapy is put into place.
This is very expensive. I would have taken my daughter to see Dr. Amen 12 years or so ago but he was in CA only, no NY clinic, and she most likely would not have wanted to participate since she was treatment resistant and unaware of how profound her psychosis was, when it demonstrated.
Has anyone here ever been treated at the Amen Clinic? What was the result of your experience? Followup treatment involves sophisticated therapy that doesn’t accept my insurance; I have to stay overnight at a hotel in midtown Manhattan for those two initial days of examination; I have to use an Uber to get in and out of NYC from 100 miles away. The total cost of all of this over several months of therapy treatment will easily be over $10K . It’s my last hope of obtaining any normalcy after eleven years of trying to deal with losing my daughter.
I’ve had therapy for those eleven years, including a few psychiatrists and therapists supposedly expert in treating trauma: didn’t work. I need the intrusive thoughts, the intrusive memories, and the constant pain of loss to STOP. I need some direction on how to do this without medication because the meds I’ve tried all MADE IT WORSE.
Opinions of those who have undergone this diagnostic procedure and treatment would be greatly appreciated.