Placebo Effects: Understanding the mechanisms in health and disease - Softcover

Benedetti, Fabrizio

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198705085 ISBN 13: 9780198705086

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2014

Synopsis

One of the most widespread words in medicine is placebo and placebo effect, although it is not always clear what it means exactly. Recent progress in biomedical research has allowed a better clarification of the placebo effect. We know that this is an active psychobiological phenomenon which takes place in the patient's brain and that is capable of influencing both the course of a disease and the response to a therapy.

Since publication of the first edition of this book in 2008, there has been an explosion of placebo research, and this new edition brings the topic fully up to date. Throughout, the book emphasizes that there are many placebo effects and critically reviews them in different medical conditions, such as neurological and psychiatric disorders, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, immune and hormonal responses, as well as oncology, surgery, sports medicine and acupuncture. The psychosocial context around the patient is crucial to the placebo effect, for example the doctor's words and attitudes, and throughout this is considered.

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 is essential for researchers and clinicians across a wide range of medical specialities.

About this title

About the Author:

Fabrizio Benedetti, Professor of Neurophysiology and Human Physiology, Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin Medical School, Italy

He 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 Neurophysiology and Human Physiology 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. He has been nominated a member of the Academy of Europe and of the European Dana Alliance for the Brain. His current scientific interests are the placebo effect across diseases, pain in dementia, and intraoperative neurophysiology for mapping the human brain.

Review:

Review from previous edition: "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 December 2009

"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 August 2009

"... comprehensive and thoughtful volume ... All physicians could learn much from this volume."

--New England Journal of Medicine April 2009

"The breadth of topics addressed ... make this book an important read for anyone in the medical field."

--Journal of the Neurological Sciences

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0198705085
• ISBN 13: 9780198705086
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 416