Pain and Placebo

Pain: Neural Pathways, Biomarkers, and Interventions – 30 March 2023

IASP defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage” to better articulate the biopsychosocial dimensions of this phenomenon. While our understanding of pain has greatly evolved over the past decades, there are still fundamental questions that need to be addressed. This webinar explored these questions related to pain such as assessing how similar pain, desire, and emotion are in their biological mechanisms and if a change in thinking can alter sensory perception and/or disease-relevant physiology.

(Un)Learning Pain: Learning Mechanisms of Placebo Effects in Pain – 23 May 2023

This webinar explored the psychology factors that modulate pain perception and pain memory, the psychology of placebo and the learning mechanisms of placebo effects, and the psychology of education – with a special interest in increasing the effectiveness of teaching, upbringing, and memory training.

The Experience of Pain and Emotion: Meeting of Body, Brain, and Mind – 15 June

This webinar explored the conceptual, mechanistic, and clinical relationships between pain and emotion – highlighting the value of bridging the pain and emotion communities – and offered opportunities for new research. To better understand these phenomena, they were discussed through the lens of cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychology, and health informatics, while integrating perspectives from emotion science, social psychology, and pain medicine.

Psychedelics in Pain Management: Therapeutic Potential, Pharmacology, and Clinical Considerations

Preliminary evidence suggests that psychedelics, such as psilocybin, provide analgesic properties in chronic pain conditions. However, the mechanisms behind this and the therapeutic efficacy of psychedelics in pain management remains vastly understudied, with many studies citing difficulty in quantifying results due to unpredictable subjective dose intensity. In this edition of the Placebo Beyond Opinions Center guest lecture hybrid series, "Psychedelics in Pain Management: Exploring Therapeutic Potential, Pharmacology, and Clinical Considerations", they presented a panel of three distinguished speakers.