Headaches

Dr. Spierings is a pharmacologist, neurologist, headache and face pain specialist, and clinical trialist. He was born in Helmond, the Netherlands, in 1953. He attended the Erasmus University Faculty of Medicine in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where he received bachelor's and master's degrees in medical sciences, a medical doctor degree, and a doctor of philosophy degree in experimental pharmacology.

In terms of postgraduate education, he trained in neurology and neurosurgery at the University Hospital Dijkzigt, now Erasmus Medical Center, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands; in psychiatry at the Reinier de Graaf Gasthuis in Delft, the oldest hospital in the Netherlands; and in headache management at the Headache Research Foundation at Faulkner Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

He was a professor of neurology and craniofacial pain, part-time academic faculty, at Tufts University Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine until he retired from academia in 2018. Since, he has been the medical director of the Boston Headache Institute and MedVadis Research at Boston Advanced Medicine, formerly Boston PainCare, in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Egilius L. H. Spierings, BS, MS, MD, PhD

Medical director at Boston Headache Institute and MedVadis Research, Boston Advanced Medicine, Waltham, Massachusetts

Retired clinical professor of neurology and craniofacial pain at Tufts University Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts

Former associate clinical professor of neurology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

Inside

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The author (right) in 1986 with his mentor in headache management, John R. Graham, MD, MRCP, when he succeeded him as director of the Headache Research Foundation at Faulkner Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts (photograph by Monika Andersson)

Outside (Long Version)

Dr. Spierings wrote this book about headaches primarily for those afflicted by them to help them understand their headaches and find ways to relieve them. However, his in-depth exploration of the subject and his extensive experience, covering almost half a century of researching and treating headaches, migraine in particular, also make the book informative for those broadly interested in the topic, including physicians and other health care practitioners.

Headaches, including the most common cause of intense headaches, migraine, we undervalue as a personal, social, and medical problem; due to the latter, we undertreat them. This is of paramount importance and is consequential, especially because it causes tremendous, unnecessary suffering. This, in turn, is detrimental to health, mental and physical, and amplifies the impact of headaches on a personal and social level.

The book describes in detail what headaches can be due to, from a general medical and neurological perspective, with the medical causes often forgotten or ignored, and which tests can shed light on the various causes. It proceeds to migraine as the most common reason we experience intense headaches and describes this condition in detail, including a historical oversight of our understanding of the mechanisms underlying migraine headaches and of the symptoms associated with them.

The book deals extensively with treatment, which is after all what headache sufferers-and often their family and friends for them-are foremost looking for. It describes the treatment in detail, making it possible to apply it or have it applied, because it may require working with a physician or other health care practitioner.

The book concludes with chapters on headache and pregnancy; cluster headache, a disabling disorder like migraine and related to it; other rare headache conditions; headaches from concussion; and face pain, similar to headaches undervalued and undertreated.

Outside (Short Version)

We undervalue headaches, including the most common cause of intense headaches-migraine-as a personal, social, and medical problem; due to the latter, we undertreat them. This book describes in detail what headaches can be due to and deals extensively with their treatment, which is after all what headache sufferers-and often their family and friends for them-are foremost looking for.

Dr. Spierings wrote this book about headaches primarily for those afflicted by them to help them understand their headaches and find ways to relieve them. However, his in-depth exploration of the subject and his extensive experience, covering almost half a century of researching and treating headaches, migraine in particular, also make the book informative for those broadly interested in the topic, including physicians and other health care practitioners.

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-- Egilius L.H. Spierings, MD, PhD