Placebo effects mapping

Principal Investigator: Prof. Fabrizio Benedetti

Group members: Fabrizio Benedetti (Full Professor, Principal Investigator)

Address and contacts:

• Fabrizio Benedetti fabrizio.benedetti@unito.it

Main research activities of the research group
The research activity is aimed at mapping the placebo and nocebo effects across different medical conditions and therapeutic interventions. To do this, we study those patients who receive a placebo in the setting of a clinical trial. The main goal is to identify which mechanisms are involved.

List of 10 main publications

• Zunhammer M, Spisák T, Wager TD, Bingel U, Atlas L. Benedetti F, and the Placebo Imaging Consortium (2021) Meta-analysis of neural systems underlying placebo analgesia from individual participant fMRI data. Nature Commun, 12, 1391.
• Zunhammer M, Bingel U, Wager TD, Atlas L, Benedetti F and the Placebo Imaging Consortium (2018) Placebo effects on the neurologic pain signature: A meta-analysis of individual participant functional magnetic resonance imaging data. JAMA Neurology, 75: 1321-1330.
• Benedetti F, Carlino E, Piedimonte A (2016) Increasing uncertainty in CNS clinical trials: the role of placebo, nocebo, and Hawthorne effects. Lancet Neurol, 15: 736-747.
• Carlino E, Frisaldi E, Benedetti F (2014) Pain and the context. Nature Rev Rheum, 10: 348-355.
• Benedetti F, Amanzio M, Rosato R, Blanchard C (2011) Non-opioid placebo analgesia is mediated by CB1 cannabinoid receptors. Nature Med, 17: 1228-1230.
• Finniss DG, Miller F, Kaptchuk T, Benedetti F (2010) Biological, clinical, and ethical advances of placebo effects. Lancet, 375: 686-695.
• Colloca L, Benedetti F (2005) Placebos and painkillers: is mind as real as matter? Nature Rev Neurosci 6: 545-552.
• Colloca L, Lopiano L, Lanotte M, Benedetti F (2004) Overt versus covert treatment for pain, anxiety and Parkinson’s disease. Lancet Neurol 3: 679-684.
• Benedetti F, Colloca L., Torre E, Lanotte M, Melcarne A, Pesare M, Bergamasco B, Lopiano L (2004) Placebo-responsive Parkinson patients show decreased activity in single neurons of subthalamic nucleus. Nature Neurosci, 7: 587-588.
• Benedetti F, Amanzio M, Maggi G (1995) Potentiation of placebo analgesia by proglumide. Lancet 346: 1231.