Research Seminar: Pursuing Placebo Effects

Event Date: October 2nd, 2014

Ted J. Kaptchuk

Research Seminar: Pursuing Placebo Effects

Presenter: Ted J. Kaptchuk is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Harvard-wide Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts.  He is also a lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  As a leading figure in placebo studies, a scholar of East Asian medicine, and an academic authority on medical pluralism, Professor Kaptchuk’s career has spanned multiple disciplines, drawing upon concepts, research designs and analytical methods from the humanities and basic and clinical and social sciences.

In collaboration with his colleagues, Professor Kaptchuk has made significant contributions to the field of placebo studies through his investigations of the impact of placebos in various illnesses, the neurobiology of placebo effects, the experience of patients being treated by placebo, and various psychological, cultural, sociological and philosophical dimensions of placebos.  Professor Kaptchuk has written well-regarded histories of placebo controls and the placebo effect, and significant ethical analyses of the use of placebos in clinical practice and research.  His laboratory is currently investigating molecular signatures for placebo responses.

(Not video recorded, per speaker request)

Location:
70 Francis Street, BWH
Shapiro Breakout Room, Shapiro Building, 1st Fl