Mood Support Protocol from Daniel Amen, MD
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Memory, mood, and focus all depend on one thing—a healthy brain. That’s why brain health has been Dr. Daniel Amen’s passion and mission for more than 30 years.
As integrative practitioners, we know that mood concerns often have their roots in physiology and biochemistry which is why improving nutrition and exercise are the first steps to better mental health.
Dr. Amen has also identified through brain scanning, how different mood concerns arise from activity in different parts of the brain. He has identified seven different types of mood concerns based on brain activity patterns and their combinations:
- too much activity in the basal ganglia
- excessive activity in the deep limbic system—the brain’s emotional center.
- low activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC)
- too little or too much activity in the temporal lobes
No matter the cause, patients with mood concerns must focus on self-care and doing things differently than before. That’s not optional.
Dr. Amen tells his patients to start every day by saying: “Today is going to be a great day.” which programs the mind to seek out why it’s going to be a great day. Then when they go to bed at night, to think about what went well. That will set the mind up for dreams to be more positive.
And, when patients ask what they can do to make the biggest difference, Amen states: “I tell them to follow this tiny little habit: Before you do anything, ask yourself, “Is this good for my brain or bad for my brain?”
To help people remember the things that either hurt or help the brain, Dr. Amen created the mnemonic BRIGHT MINDS. You’ll find the BRIGHT MINDS patient handout, included with Dr. Amen’s Mood Support Protocol in the Wellevate Protocol Library. Sign in to your Wellevate® account to access Dr. Amen’s protocols and over a hundred others from today’s leading integrative experts!
Daniel Amen, MD, is a double board–certified psychiatrist, clinical neuroscientist, and brain imaging specialist. He’s a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a New York Times best-selling author of more than 30 books. He has also co-authored over 70 scientific papers and has been published in more than 15 peer-reviewed medical journals. Dr. Amen is the founder of the Amen Clinics, where he has used brain SPECT imaging as an adjunct diagnostic tool in everyday clinical psychiatric practice since 1989.
