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Topic · Cognitive Neuroscience

Pain Management and Placebo Effect

Pain Management and Placebo Effect is a research topic within Cognitive Neuroscience. Science Explorer counts 22k research works in it since 1950. 16.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the neurobiological mechanisms underlying placebo and nocebo effects, focusing on the role of expectation, pain perception, opioid activity, dopamine release, and the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging in clinical trials. It also delves into the impact of hypnosis on pain relief and the modulation of patient outcomes through placebo responses.

  • Placebo
  • Nocebo
  • Neurobiological Mechanisms
  • Expectation
  • Pain
  • Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Opioid Activity
  • Dopamine Release
  • Clinical Trials
  • Hypnosis
Research works
22k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.6k
per year above
Top-10% rate
16.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+13%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Pain Management and Placebo Effect research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (844 and 228 works in 2022–2025).

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States 844 works
  2. 2 China 228 works
  3. 3 Germany 227 works
  4. 4 France 217 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 208 works
  6. 6 India 145 works
  7. 7 Canada 131 works
  8. 8 Australia 117 works
  9. 9 Italy 102 works
  10. 10 Indonesia 97 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 36.4%China: 9.8%Germany: 9.8%France: 9.4%6 others listed: 34.5%36%largest
United States844 · 36.4%China228 · 9.8%Germany227 · 9.8%France217 · 9.4%6 others listed800 · 34.5%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Pain Management and Placebo Effect research?

By volume in 2022–2025, Harvard University publishes the most Pain Management and Placebo Effect research, followed by The University of Sydney and University of Washington.

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Harvard UniversityUnited States 17 works
  2. 2 The University of SydneyAustralia 15 works
  3. 3 University of WashingtonUnited States 11 works
  4. 4 University of TorontoCanada 11 works
  5. 5 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 11 works
  6. 6 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 10 works
  7. 7 University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 10 works
  8. 8 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 10 works
  9. 9 King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 10 works
  10. 10 University of Maryland, BaltimoreUnited States 10 works

Where is Pain Management and Placebo Effect research done?

The largest centres of Pain Management and Placebo Effect research in 2022–2025 are Paris (France), London (United Kingdom), Beijing (China) and New York (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in San Francisco.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Paris France 68 works
  2. 2 London United Kingdom 64 works
  3. 3 Beijing China 40 works
  4. 4 New York United States 39 works
  5. 5 Boston United States 37 works
  6. 6 Montreal Canada 35 works
  7. 7 Sydney Australia 35 works
  8. 8 Baltimore United States 31 works
  9. 9 Toronto Canada 26 works
  10. 10 São Paulo Brazil 25 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. San FranciscoUS · 23.6 works5.4×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Pain Management and Placebo Effect than the world average.

See Pain Management and Placebo Effect on the map

Where is the best place to study Pain Management and Placebo Effect?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Maryland, Baltimore, The University of Sydney and Beijing University of Chinese Medicine score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 29.09%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →University of Maryland, Baltimore: 10, 28.0%The University of Sydney: 15, 30.1%Beijing University of Chinese Medicine: 8, 24.3%Harvard University: 17, 22.5%King's College London: 10, 39.7%Maastricht University: 8, 25.9%University of California, San Francisco: 10, 38.6%Johns Hopkins University: 10, 38.0%University of Oxford: 11, 20.4%University of Toronto: 11, 23.4%The University of Sy…University of Maryla…Beijing University o…Harvard University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 University of Maryland, BaltimoreUnited States 65.728.0%9.4×10 +107.2%
2 The University of SydneyAustralia 60.430.1%4.7×15 +13.4%
3 Beijing University of Chinese MedicineChina 59.924.3%14.3×8 +131.7%
4 Harvard UniversityUnited States 55.822.5%4.1×17 +7.1%
5 King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 55.539.7%4.0×10 +22.7%
6 Maastricht UniversityNetherlands 53.825.9%7.7×8 +8.6%
7 University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 53.438.6%4.8×10 +5.4%
8 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 50.038.0%2.9×10 +29.4%
9 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 37.220.4%2.6×11 -7.9%
10 University of TorontoCanada 37.023.4%2.4×11 -24.5%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Pain Management and Placebo Effect research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 13% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Pain Management and Placebo Effect.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.