Placebo Effects in Neurology

Prof. Fabrizio Benedetti, MD is Professor of Neurophysiology and Human Physiology at the University of Turin Medical School, Italy, and Director of Medicine and Physiology of Hypoxia at Plateau Rosà, Switzerland. He identified the basic mechanisms of placebo and nocebo effects across a number of medical conditions and therapeutic interventions, including pain, Parkinson’s disease, the endocrine system and oxygen-dependent critical life functions. He has been a consultant and advisor at NIH, NIMH, NIDA, NCCAM and at Harvard University since 2000. He is recipient of the 2009 Medical Book Award of the BMA, the 2012 Seymour Solomon Award of the American Headache Society, and the 2015 William S Kroger Award of Behavioral Medicine from the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. In 2023 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society for Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies. He is currently on the editorial boards for Current Neuropharmacology and Canadian Jrnl of Pain.Prof. Aziz Shaibani, MD is clinical Professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and the director of the Nerve and Muscle Centre of Texas. He is board certified in Neurology, neuromuscular medicine, neurophysiology, electrodiagnostic medicine and clinical neuromuscular pathology. He was president of the Texas Neurological society and VP of the neuromuscular section of the American Academy of Neurology. He has been the principal investigator of 145 clinical trials funded by pharmaceutical companies and NIH. He is on the ed board of Practical neurology and serves as a reviewer for the Lancet, BMJ, Neurology, Neurology genetics, and Muscle and Nerve. He is a past recipient of PROSE and BMA awards for best medical book and has been elected to the list of the “best doctors in America” since 2009.

• Section I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS1. A brief history of placebo2. Placebo effects and emotion regulation: Conceptual and neural similarities and differences3. Understanding the psychology of the nocebo effect4. Open-label nondeceptive placebos5. Social aspects6. Age and gender7. Conditioned Immune Responses and the neural-immune connection in animals and humans8. The Role of Mindsets in Placebo Effects and Healthcare9. The PlacebomeSection II. SPECIFIC NEUROLOGIC CONDITIONS10. Pain11. The motor system and motor disorders12. Peripheral neuropathies13. Placebo and Nocebo Effects in Headaches14. Placebo Effects in Mental Disorders15. Miscellaneous neurological conditions with a few or no available data16. Hypoxia17. The Placebo Effect in Psychotherapy18. Interventional procedures and physical therapies19. The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Special Case of Placebo and Nocebo EffectsSection III. METHODOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES20. Minimizing placebo effects in clinical trials21. Ethical considerations with using placebo treatments and effects in clinical practice22. Placebo and the doctor-patient interaction and communication