The Trump administration plans to appoint psychiatrist Daniel Amen, MD, to the National Advisory Mental Health Council, the panel that advises the National Institute of Mental Health, Science reported.
Former NIMH Director Joshua Gordon, MD, PhD, a psychiatrist, criticized the pick, accusing Dr. Amen’s chain of clinics of exploiting desperate patients. He said there is no advisory board “in the world I would want him to be on.”
Dr. Amen is CEO of the 12-clinic chain, which uses single photon emission computed tomography brain scans to help diagnose depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. He confirmed the nomination to Science. The appointment is pending ethics clearance.
The council weighs in on funding initiatives and conducts a second layer of peer review on grants for the $2.2 billion institute. HHS put Dr. Amen forward. He was not on the list of candidates NIMH staff recommended, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The appointment has drawn scrutiny over Dr. Amen’s use of SPECT imaging for psychiatric care. Regulators have not approved the technology for psychiatric use, scans can cost thousands of dollars and insurers typically do not cover them. A 2012 American Psychiatric Association consensus statement found imaging biomarkers are not clinically useful for diagnosis. Dr. Amen said his clinics do not diagnose based on SPECT but use the scans to guide treatment.
Dr. Amen would be the third council appointee this year aligned with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement. He would join antidepressant skeptics Laura Delano and David Cohen, PhD.
NIMH has not had a permanent director since Dr. Gordon left in June 2024. Mr. Kennedy reportedly overrode National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD’s recommendation for the post and plans to appoint Stanford (Calif.) University psychiatrist Shebani Sethi, MD. Dr. Sethi’s appointment has not been announced.
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