amen's practices use single-photon emission computed tomography, or spect, scans of brain activity in an attempt to compare the activity of a person's brain to a known healthy model. amen prescribes both medication and non-medicative courses of treatment, depending on the case. he also performs before-and-after spect scans, which claim to assess the effectiveness of treatment. amen's clinics claim to have the world's largest database of functional brain scans for neuropsychiatry. , amen said he had scanned 50,000 people at an estimated cost of $170 million.