Bio | Dr Dean H Watson

Headache and Migraine Consultant; Teacher and Educationalist; Director of the Watson Headache Institute and Watson Headache Clinic Adelaide

Dr. Dean H Watson PhD

Having treated secondary and primary headache exclusively since 1991, Dean has over 24000 hours of clinical experience with 8000 patients. He is the founder of the Watson Headache® Approach (a manual cervical approach recognised internationally for its unparalleled diagnostic accuracy), Director of the Watson Headache® Clinic and Watson Headache® Institute.

Dean’s PhD investigated the role of cervical afferents in primary headache (the principal finding of which has been described as the most significant in manual therapy for decades). He has published in Cephalalgia and Headache and presented as an invited speaker on numerous occasions at inter/national conferences.

Dean remains an active clinician, teacher (inter/nationally since 1995), researcher and PhD supervisor and is an adjunct lecturer at the University of South Australia.

There is widespread agreement that sensitisation of the trigemino cervical nucleus accompanies migraine. Elementary neuro anatomy commissions the (noxious) C1-3 afferents as a potential source of sensitisation of the trigemino cervical nucleus, yet they are largely dismissed…

Dean’s clinical experience and research suggests that cervical afferents are not only responsible for ‘cervicogenic headache’ but a peripheral source of central sensitisation in primary (including migraine) headache conditions. This will be reflected in his presentation:

‘Vestibular Migraine: could cervical afferents be rocking the boat?