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.