Abstract
During the last 40 years or so the world of headache has been blessed with two remarkable men, Dr Seymour Diamond and Dr Frank Clifford Rose. They were great friends, and have both recently published autobiographies. Frank’s is, of course posthumous following his death in 2012, while Seymour, just the elder, is still enjoying his retirement at the age of 89.
Although living and working in very different environments on different continents, Seymour and Frank have striking similarities over and above their lively personalities. They were born within 16 months of each other of Jewish immigrant stock – Frank’s parents settled in the East End of London after getting married and having two children in Romania, and he was the youngest of seven surviving siblings. Seymour’s parents, by contrast, had arrived in Chicago as children from Slovakia and from the Ukraine, and he was the youngest of their four children. Both had that combination of inherent talent and industry which enabled them to move out of their original background. I think it is fair to say that Frank’s path was advantaged by the grammar school and university system of his time in Britain, while Seymour grew up in the challenging environment of war-time America. Never is this more clear than in their early clinical training; Frank was able to do all his jobs within London, whereas Seymour tells the tale of his in-laws driving him, his new wife, and all their possessions from Chicago to Arkansas and then to Ohio every year or so.
Both spent the bulk of their careers as practising physicians with an interest in headache, though Seymour was never a board-certified neurologist as he had been accredited in family medicine and had not completed a residency programme in Neurology. Both set up dedicated migraine clinics; Frank’s clinic is dedicated to Princess Margaret, while Seymour’s bears his own name. Both wrote and edited large numbers of books and conference proceedings.
Both were superb administrators, and used their talents in a wider field. Frank was the more international, playing a major role in the evolution of the International Headache Society, and serving as secretary treasurer general of the World Federation of Neurology. Seymour, in contrast, devoted much of his energy to the in- and outpatient facility he established in Chicago and developed a nationwide reputation as a physician “who cared”. He was one of the first to try tricyclic antidepressants in headache patients and was the leading light in many of the trials of drugs that are currently part of the every physician’s drug armamentarium. He played a major role in the evolution of the American Association for the Study of Headache and was their chief executive for many years; his autobiography makes it clear that his relationship with the neurological establishment was often fraught. Nevertheless, it is a tribute to his diplomatic skills that the American Headache Society (as it is now called) covers such a broad spectrum of practitioners from neurologists and paediatricians to physiotherapists, psychologists and other colleagues. He also initiated the influential patients’ own National Migraine (now Headache) Foundation.
Frank, in contrast, was more of a neurological polymath, with interests not only in headache but also in motor neurone disease, Parkinson’s disease and stroke, and he was perhaps more dependent on his junior colleagues on both the clinical and academic front. Seymour’s concentration on one symptom attracted devoted patients from all over the continent. Both were renowned for their approachability.
Seymour’s autobiography was written in conjunction with a medical journalist, in the third person in somewhat more popular style, with many fascinating personal details, including his prowess at bridge and his innocent dealings with the local mafia. Frank wrote his in the first person, and his voice and characteristic energy come through. They were both devoted to their wives and children; Seymour and Elaine had three girls, of whom one now runs the eponymous clinic in Chicago after his retirement, while Frank and his wife Angela had three boys, all established in careers away from medicine.
Both autobiographies give fascinating insights into medical training during and immediately after World War II, as well as into the evolution of the clinical and academic world of headache on each side of the Atlantic, and are fitting tributes to two outstanding men.