Fabrizio Benedetti

A "fake" drug with the same effects as a real one: this is the so-called placebo effect, of which Professor Benedetti, a neuroscientist, is a leading expert. Here he explains Placebo mechanisms in mental health: how words and rituals can influence our health and what happens in the brain when we believe in therapies or, conversely, when we don't trust doctors. Perhaps the placebo effect is also the mechanism behind alternative medicines that have no scientific basis, such as homeopathy or other complementary "medicines". His work reveals that much remains to be explored on the question of the boundaries between pharmacology and psychology.