Administrative Assistant: Ann McCreath
Phone: 416-323-6108
Email: ann.mccreath@sunnybrook.ca

Education:

• BA, Cantab, 1968, Caius College, Cambridge
• M.B.B.Ch., Cantab, 1971
• MA, Cantab, 1972
• MRCP, 1974, UK
• FRCP, Neurology, 1983, Canada
• FRCP, 1994, UK

Appointments and Affiliations:

• Affiliate scientist, evaluative clinical sciences - Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute
• Neurologist, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
• Associate professor, division of neurology, University of Toronto

Research Foci:

• Headache
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

Research Summary:

Dr. Gawel runs the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Headache Research Unit. This unit has been in existence for the last 21 years and offers a clinical service to patients with a variety of headaches including migraine. It also runs clinical research including trials with new pharmaceutical products for migraine and headache.

Past projects have included Transcranial Doppler ultrasonography in cluster headache. Studies with all the 5HT1b1d agonists the triptans. Recent studies include evaluation of Botulinum Toxin Type A in migraine patients.

Current collaborative research includes the use of Functional MRI and Transcranial Ultrasonography in migraine patients with aura, evaluation of ocular movements in patients with migraine and the Canadian Headache Database Project.

Dr. Gawel is also co-director of the Sunnybrook Health Science Centre Neuromuscular Clinic which is a facility dealing with adult patients with neuromuscular diseases. In practice most of the patients who come to the clinic have Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Past research projects have included a trial of insuling related nerve growth factor in patients with ALS. A trial of 5HT1a agonist in ALS and currently Dr. Gawel is on the steering committee of a Canada wide study of Riluzole in the management of ALS. In conjunction with the department of radiology a study has been published on Magnetic Resonance Imaging in patients with ALS.

Selected Publications:

See current publications list at PubMed.

1. Gawel MJ, Worthington I, Maggisano A. A Systematic Review of the Use of Triptans in Acute Migraine. Can. J. Neurol. Sci. 2001; Volume 28, No 1: 30-41.
2. Pryse-Phillips W, Dodick DW, Edmeads JG, Gawel MJ, Nelson RF, Purdy RA, Robinson G, Stirling D.
3. Guidelines for the Management of Migraine in Clinical Practice (2): Non-pharmacological therapy
4. CMAJ 1997;156(9):1273-87.
5. Pryse-Phillips, W, Dodick D, Edmeads J, Gawel M. Guidelines for the Management of Migraine in Clinical Practice. CMAJ, 1997;156(9):1273-1287.