The placebo effect continues to fascinate scientists, scholars, and clinicians, resulting in an impressive amount of research, mainly in the field of pain. While recent experimental and clinical studies have unraveled salient aspects of the neurobiological substrates and clinical relevance of pain and placebo analgesia, an authoritative source remained lacking until now. By presenting and integrating a broad range of research, Placebo and Pain enhances readers' knowledge about placebo and nocebo effects, reexamines the methodology of clinical trials, and improves the therapeutic approaches for patients suffering from pain.

Preface1. Historical Aspects of Placebo Analgesia2. Neurochemistry of Placebo Analgesia: Opioids, Cannabinoids and Cholecystokinin3. Placebo Analgesia in Rodents4. Molecular Mechanisms of Placebo Responses in Humans5. How Does EEG Contribute to Our Understanding of the Placebo Response?6. Spinal Mechanisms of Placebo Analgesia and Nocebo Hyperalgesia: Descending Inhibitory and Facilitatory Influences7. Spinal and Supraspinal Mechanisms of Placebo Analgesia8. Positive and Negative Emotions and Placebo Analgesia9. Placing Placebo in Normal Brain Function with Neuroimaging10. Brain Predictors of Individual Differences in Placebo Responding11. Placebo Responses, Antagonistic Responses, and Homeostasis12. Placebo Analgesia, Nocebo Hyperalgesia, and Acupuncture13. The Relevance of Placebo and Nocebo Mechanisms for Analgesic Treatments14. How Placebo Responses Are Formed: From Bench to Bedside15. Methodologic Aspects of Placebo Research16. Balanced Placebo Design, Active Placebos, and Other Design Features for Identifying, Minimilizing and Characterizing the Placebo Response17. Psychological Processes that can Bias Responses to Placebo Treatment for Pain18. Against "Placebo." The Case for Changing our Language, adn for the Meaning Response19. Placebo Effects in Complementary and Alternative Medicine: The Self-Healing Response20. Conceptualizations and Magnitudes of Placebo Analgesia Effects Across Meta-Analyses and Experimental Studies21. The Contribution of Desire, Expectation, and Reduced Negative Emotions to Placebo Anti-Hyperalgesia in Irritable Bowel Syndrome22. The Wound that Heals: Placebo, Pain and Surgery23. What Are the Best Placebo Interventions for the Treatment of Pain?24. How Communication between Clinicians and Patients may Impact Pain Perception25. Nocebos in Daily Clinical Practice26. The Potential of the Analgesic Placebo Effect in Clinical Practice - Recommendations for Pain Management27. Placebo and Nocebo: Ethical Challenges and Solutions