Collaborations

The Society for Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies (SIPS) is an international association of scholars who share the goal of understanding the placebo effect in medical treatment, psychotherapy, and complementary and alternative treatment.

The collaborative research centre "Treatment Expectation" and our research methods are designed to be multidimensional, multilayered and complex in order to find valid answers to the crucial question: How do positive and negative patient expectations affect treatment outcomes?

The Pain Research Group was founded in 2011 at the Institute of Psychology of the Jagiellonian University. The group is conducting research within several projects funded by the National Science Centre in Poland. 

The Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter hosted at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School is the first research center to pursue placebo studies through interdisciplinary, translational research initiatives that bridge the basic, clinical and social sciences, as well as the humanities.

Based on the high amount of empirical evidence in the field of placebo effects, the interest of the scientific community has shifted from the mere content of the placebo agent to its active mechanisms in simulating and modulating the efficacy of a therapy. Indeed, placebo effects consist of complex mechanisms that are active anytime a patient receives a treatment whether inert, or in combination with a pharmacological effect. The negative counterpart is the nocebo effect, i.e., an adverse event resulting from negative expectations and beliefs, which can lead to a worsening of the disease and lower effectiveness of therapies. Patient learning, expectations and needs, the environmental and clinical setting, and the doctor-patient relationship are key elements involved in placebo/nocebo effects.