Fabrizio Benedetti is professor of physiology and neuroscience at the

University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian language, Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public university, public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the List ...

Medical School in

Turin, Italy Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

and a researcher in the field of placebo studies. He is known for his research into the

placebo A placebo ( ) can be roughly defined as a sham medical treatment. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. Placebos are used in randomized clinical trials ...

and nocebo effects.

Placebo and nocebo research

Benedetti began studying placebos in the 1990s while researching pain. His research has found that "the promise of treatment activates areas of the brain involved in weighing the significance of events and the seriousness of threats." Another of Benedetti's studies examined the effectiveness of placebos in the treatment of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

, and the effect of this treatment on neurons that control movement. He found that giving these patients a placebo led to a decrease in the rate at which these neurons fired of about 40%, and that this enabled the patients to move more easily. In 2007, Benedetti published a study in which he and his co-authors gave subjects morphine during a hand-squeezing exercise, and later replaced the morphine with a placebo without the subjects' knowledge. In this study, the subjects who received morphine and then a placebo endured significantly more pain than did patients in any of the control groups. In a 2011 paper, Benedetti and co-authors argued that there exist many different placebo effects, "with different mechanisms and in different diseases, systems, and therapeutic interventions." He has also published research on the nocebo effect, in which adverse events are produced as a result of negative expectations. In some of these studies, he found that

cholecystokinin Cholecystokinin (CCK or CCK-PZ; from Greek ''chole'', "bile"; ''cysto'', "sac"; ''kinin'', "move"; hence, ''move the bile-sac (gallbladder)'') is a peptide hormone of the gastrointestinal system responsible for stimulating the digestion of fat a ...

is responsible for the transmission of pain by the nocebo effect. This research also found that drugs used to block this chemical, such as

proglumide Proglumide, sold under the brand name Milid, is a drug that inhibits gastrointestinal motility Motility is the ability of an organism to move independently using metabolism, metabolic energy. This biological concept encompasses movement at v ...

, can also stop nocebo pain. Another of Benedetti's studies found that when individuals were told about a possible link between high altitudes and headaches before going on a high-altitude hike in the

Italian Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

, it led to an enhancement of the

cyclooxygenase Cyclooxygenase (COX), officially known as prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase (PTGS), is an enzyme (specifically, a family of isozymes, ) that is responsible for biosynthesis of prostanoids, including thromboxane and prostaglandins such a ...

prostaglandin Prostaglandins (PG) are a group of physiology, physiologically active lipid compounds called eicosanoids that have diverse hormone-like effects in animals. Prostaglandins have been found in almost every Tissue (biology), tissue in humans and ot ...

pathway in those individuals, and that they developed significantly more headaches than the control group did.

Impact

Benedetti has been credited as being partly responsible for the increasing respectability of research into the placebo effect. A review of his book ''Placebo Effects: Understanding the mechanisms in health and disease'' in the ''New England Journal of Medicine'' stated that he runs "the foremost laboratory for the study of placebo effects in the world."

Awards and honors

Benedetti is a member of the Academy of Europe and the European Dana Alliance for the Brain. Additionally, his book ''Placebo Effects: Understanding the mechanisms in health and disease'' won the

British Medical Association The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union and professional body for physician, doctors in the United Kingdom. It does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The BMA ...

's Highly Commended Book Award.

Books

* Later editions: 2014 (2nd), 2021 (3rd). *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benedetti, Fabrizio Academic staff of the University of Turin Living people Italian neuroscientists Neurophysiologists Placebo researchers Year of birth missing (living people)