Placebo Effects
Understanding the Mechanisms in Health and Disease
Published on 16. October 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-0-19-955912-1 (ISBN)
Description
The placebo effect is one of the most widely used and familiar terms within science and medicine, yet it is not always clear just what we mean by a placebo effect.Though we might describe a placebo effect as being 'all in the mind', we now know that there is a genuine neurobiological basis to this phenomenon. In recent years our knowledge of the neural bases of the placebo effect has developed markedly, and we now have a far better understanding of how it can influence both the course of a disease and the response to therapy. This is the first book to critically review the mechanisms of placebo and placebo-related effects across all medical conditions, diseases, and therapeutic interventions. It describes the main psychological and biological mechanisms of placebo responsiveness across the entire spectrum of medical disciplines. In addition, it looks at the clinical and ethical implications of administering placebos. Exhaustive in its coverage, and written by a world authority in the field, this is the definitive reference text to the placebo effect - one that will be essential for researchers and clinicians across a wide range of medical specialities.
Reviews / Votes
Benedetti is highly analytical in his approach and, at the same time, has the ability to explain complex matters so that they are easily understood. This book should be a must for all who struggle to make sense out of the intriguing phenomenon we call placebo. Pharmaceutical Press Benedetti's book is a lucid and extensive review entrenched in the neuroscience of placebo research and heralding the importance of this area of study. PsycCRITIQUIES ... comprehensive and thoughtful volume ... All physicians could learn much from this volume. New England Journal of Medicine The breadth of topics addressed ... make this book an important read for anyone in the medical field. Journal of the Neurological SciencesMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Illustrations
47 figures; 16 photos; 8pp colour plates
Dimensions
Height: 233 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
508 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-955912-1 (9780199559121)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Fabrizio Benedetti received the Medical Doctor (MD) degree in 1981 from the University of Turin Medical School. In 1984, he received a Silbert International Award from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). In the 1980s and 1990s, he worked in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA and was a visiting professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Texas in Dallas. He has been Professor of Physiology and Neuroscience at the University of Turin Medical School since 1999. He has been a member of the six-strong group on placebo of the Mind-Brain-Behavior Initiative at Harvard University, and a consultant for the Placebo Project at the US National Institute of Health. His current scientific interests are the placebo effect across diseases, pain in dementia, and intraoperative neurophysiology for mapping the human brain.
Content
1. The traditional concept of placebo ; 1.1 The origin of the placebo concept and methodology ; 1.2 The placebo in clinical trials and medical practice ; 2. A modern view of placebo and placebo-related effects ; 2.1 What they are not ; 2.2 What they are ; 2.3 How they work ; 2.4 Why they occur ; 3. Pain ; 3.1 Placebo analgesia ; 3.2 Nocebo hyperalgesia ; 4. Disorders of the nervous system ; 4.1 Parkinson's disease ; 4.2 Deep brain stimulation and emotional processing ; 4.3 Migraine ; 4.4 Sleep ; 4.5 Neurological disorders with a few or no available data ; 5. Mental and behavioural disorders ; 5.1 Depression ; 5.2 Anxiety ; 5.3 Dementia ; 5.4 Addiction ; 5.5 Psychotherapy ; 5.6 Premenstrual dysphoric disorder ; 5.7 Mental disorders with no available data ; 6. Immune and endocrine systems ; 6.1 Immunity and hormone secretion are subject to psychosocial influences ; 6.2 The immune system ; 6.3 The endocrine system ; 7. Cardiovascular and respiratory systems ; 7.1 The cardiovascular system ; 7.2 The respiratory system ; 8. Gastrointestinal and genitourinary disorders ; 8.1 Gastrointestinal disorders ; 8.2 Genitourinary disorders ; 9. Special medical conditions and therapeutic interventions ; 9.1 Oncology ; 9.2 Sports medicine and physiology ; 9.3 Surgery ; 9.4 Physical therapy ; 9.5 Alternative and complementary therapies ; 9.6 Patient-provider interaction ; 9.7 Other conditions with no available data ; 10. Clinical-ethical implications and applications ; 10.1 Assessing the effectiveness of new therapies ; 10.2 Harnessing placebo and placebo-related effects in the clinic ; 11. How to run a placebo study: a closer look into complex experimental designs ; 11.1 What are we looking for? ; 11.2 Many arms are better than two ; 11.3 Investigating sequence effects and learning ; 11.4 Comparing expected versus unexpected therapies