About Dr. Egilius
Living with persistent headaches or facial pain can be exhausting. For many people, the search for answers involves years of uncertainty, multiple consultations, and treatments that never quite work.
Dr. Egilius L.H. Spierings has spent nearly five decades helping patients find those answers.
A neurologist, pharmacologist, headache and facial pain specialist, and clinical trialist, he has devoted his entire career to understanding, diagnosing and treating headache disorders. He has cared for thousands of patients—many of them with migraine—and has followed many over years, and often decades, gaining a unique understanding of how these conditions evolve over time and how they can be managed successfully.
His clinical experience has not only transformed the lives of individual patients but has also shaped the field itself. He first described hemicrania continua as an indomethacin-responsive headache syndrome, pioneered the use of high-dose verapamil for cluster headache, developed the parallel theory of migraine pathogenesis, and more recently introduced the concept of systemic endocrine-metabolic syndrome (SEMS) to better explain the complex medical conditions associated with chronic migraine.
Born in Helmond, The Netherlands, Dr. Spierings trained at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, where he earned degrees in medicine and experimental pharmacology. Throughout his career he has shared his expertise internationally, lecturing across Europe, North and South America, and Australia. He has organised 26 scientific symposia at Harvard Medical School and Tufts University and has authored, co-authored or edited more than 300 scientific publications, including ten books.
Despite these academic achievements, his focus has remained unchanged: helping every patient receive an accurate diagnosis, understand their condition, and find the treatment that offers the greatest opportunity for lasting relief.
At a Glance
- Nationality: Dutch (Netherlands)
- Date of Birth: 16 August 1953
- Superpower: An unparalleled command of headache and face pain — in both science and practice
- Surprising Fact: Spends his free time playing samba and bossa nova guitar, and horseback riding
Qualifications & Registration
BSc · MSc · MD · PhD (Experimental Pharmacology)
- Active Physician Full License — The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine, No. 57525
- Certification in Neurology — The Committee for the Registration of Specialists, Royal Netherlands Medical Association
Education
- BSc, Faculty of Medicine, Erasmus University, Rotterdam (Cum Laude) — 1971–1974
- MSc, Faculty of Medicine, Erasmus University, Rotterdam — 1974–1976
- MD, Faculty of Medicine, Erasmus University, Rotterdam — 1976–1978
- Research Fellow in Pharmacology, Erasmus University, Rotterdam — 1978–1980
Clinical Training
- Intern in Neurosurgery — University Hospital Dijkzigt (now Erasmus Medical Center), Rotterdam — 1980–1981
- Clinical Fellow in Headache Management — The Headache Research Foundation, The Faulkner Hospital, Boston — 1981–1982
- Resident in Neurology — University Hospital Dijkzigt, Rotterdam — 1982–1984
- Resident in Psychiatry — Reinier de Graaf Hospital, Delft — 1985
Clinical Experience
- Headache Consultant, Pain Treatment Center — University Hospital Dijkzigt, Rotterdam — 1980–1981
- Director, The Headache Research Foundation — The Faulkner Hospital, Boston — 1986–1989
- Director, The John R. Graham Headache Centre — The Faulkner Hospital, Boston — 1987–1990
- Director, Headache Section, Division of Neurology — Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston — 1990–1994
- Director, Headache Section, Craniofacial Pain, Headache & Sleep Center — Tufts University School of Dental Medicine — 2011–2018
- Director, Headache & Face Pain Program, Department of Neurology — Tufts Medical Center — 2013–2018
- Medical Director, Greater Boston Headache Center — Boston Advanced Medicine, Waltham, Massachusetts — 2019–present
Academic Appointments
- Research Assistant, Department of Social and Preventive Psychiatry — Erasmus University — 1974
- Research and Teaching Assistant, Department of Pharmacology — Erasmus University — 1975–1976
- Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology — Tufts University School of Medicine — 1986–1990
- Lecturer, Department of Neurology — Harvard Medical School — 1990–1999
- Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Neurology — Harvard Medical School — 1999–2014
- Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology & Craniofacial Pain — Tufts University School of Dental Medicine — 2009–2014
- Clinical Professor, Division of Craniofacial Pain, Headache & Sleep — Tufts University School of Dental Medicine — 2014–2018
- Clinical Professor, Department of Neurology — Tufts University School of Medicine — 2016–2018
Hospital Appointments
- Assistant Psychiatrist — Reinier de Graaf Hospital, Delft — 1986
- Physician (Neurology) — The Faulkner Hospital, Boston — 1986–1990
- Associate Physician (Neurology) — Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston — 1990–1991
- Physician (Neurology) — Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston — 1992–1995
- Visiting Neurologist — Bonifatius Headache Clinic, Talma Sionsberg Hospital, Dokkum, The Netherlands — 2009–2011
- Physician, Department of Neurology — Tufts Medical Center, Boston — 2012–2018
Research Appointments
- Director — Boston Clinical Research Center, Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts — 1996–2003
- Medical Director — MedVadis Research Corporation, Boston Advanced Medicine, Waltham, Massachusetts — 2003–present
Selected Publications
- Migraine Questions and Answers.
- Merit Publishing International, 1995 & 2002
- Management of Migraine.
- Butterworth-Heinemann, 1996 (translated and published in Japanese, 1997
- Headache and Pain.
- In: Office Practice of Neurology, Churchill Livingstone, 1996 (1st ed.) & 2003 (2nd ed.)
- Headache.
- Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998
- Migraine: A Neuroinflammatory Disease?
- (editor, with Sanchez del Rio M.) Birkhäuser Verlag, 2002
- Headaches: Why You Have Them – What You Can Do About Them.
- Fulton Books, 2025
