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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. 10.2% 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%
2.2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+9%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
36% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Pain Management and Placebo Effect

Which countries lead Pain Management and Placebo Effect research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (957 and 269 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 957 works
  2. 2 China 269 works
  3. 3 Germany 255 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 242 works
  5. 5 France 232 works
  6. 6 India 174 works
  7. 7 Canada 153 works
  8. 8 Australia 131 works
  9. 9 Italy 117 works
  10. 10 Indonesia 108 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: 36.3%China: 10.2%Germany: 9.7%United Kingdom: 9.2%6 others listed: 34.7%36%largest
United States957 · 36.3%China269 · 10.2%Germany255 · 9.7%United Kingdom242 · 9.2%6 others listed915 · 34.7%

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

Which institutions lead Pain Management and Placebo Effect research?

By volume in 2022-now, Harvard University publishes the most Pain Management and Placebo Effect research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and University of Toronto.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harvard UniversityUnited States 48 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 33 works
  3. 3 University of TorontoCanada 23 works
  4. 4 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 21 works
  5. 5 InsermFrance 20 works
  6. 6 The University of SydneyAustralia 19 works
  7. 7 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 18 works
  8. 8 Stanford UniversityUnited States 17 works
  9. 9 Université Paris CitéFrance 17 works
  10. 10 University of WashingtonUnited States 15 works

Who are the leading researchers in Pain Management and Placebo Effect?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Pain Management and Placebo Effect include David Moher, Douglas G. Altman and George Davey Smith.

  1. 1 David Moher Canada 898k citations
  2. 2 Douglas G. Altman United Kingdom 862k citations
  3. 3 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  4. 4 John J.V. McMurray United Kingdom 349k citations
  5. 5 Valery L. Feigin New Zealand 341k citations
  6. 6 Matthias Egger Switzerland 326k citations
  7. 7 Gordon Henry Guyatt Canada 315k citations
  8. 8 Karl John Friston United Kingdom 310k citations
  9. 9 Dan J. Stein South Africa 306k citations
  10. 10 Peter Jüni Switzerland 303k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Pain Management and Placebo Effect?

The most cited paper in Pain Management and Placebo Effect is "Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future." (Jon Kabat‐Zinn, 2003), with 7,655 citations. Next come "The McGill Pain Questionnaire: Major properties and scoring methods" (6,910) and "Pain assessment: global use of the Brief Pain Inventory." (5,290).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future. Jon Kabat‐Zinn · Clinical Psychology Science and Practice 2003 7,655
2 The McGill Pain Questionnaire: Major properties and scoring methods Ronald Melzack · Pain Sep 1975 6,910
3 Pain assessment: global use of the Brief Pain Inventory. Cleeland Cs, Ryan Km · PubMed Mar 1994 5,290
4 Central sensitization: Implications for the diagnosis and treatment of pain Clifford J. Woolf · Pain Open access 19 Oct 2010 4,736
5 MEASUREMENT OF PAIN E.C. HUSKISSON · The Lancet Nov 1974 4,523
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Pain Management and Placebo Effect research done?

The largest centres of Pain Management and Placebo Effect research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Paris (France), Beijing (China) and New York (United States).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 78 works
  2. 2 ParisFrance 72 works
  3. 3 BeijingChina 46 works
  4. 4 New YorkUnited States 43 works
  5. 5 BostonUnited States 40 works
  6. 6 MontrealCanada 40 works
  7. 7 SydneyAustralia 40 works
  8. 8 BaltimoreUnited States 37 works
  9. 9 TorontoCanada 29 works
  10. 10 ShanghaiChina 28 works
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, Harvard University, Imperial College London and University of Toronto 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 20.63%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Imperial College Lon…University of Califo…University of TorontoHarvard University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Harvard UniversityUnited States 68.414.0%4.4×48 -11.9%
2Imperial College LondonUnited Kingdom 66.138.4%2.9×10 +45.5%
3University of TorontoCanada 64.219.3%3.3×23 +25.1%
4University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 62.723.9%6.2×15 +50.2%
5Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 58.418.9%4.0×21 +16.2%
6The University of SydneyAustralia 57.518.0%4.7×19 +13.0%
7University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 54.513.4%3.7×18 -7.4%
8Maastricht UniversityNetherlands 53.420.9%7.5×10 -3.4%
9King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 51.625.6%4.5×13 -20.4%
10Universität HamburgGermany 51.113.9%5.7×14 -12.9%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Pain Management and Placebo Effect, country by country

Is Pain Management and Placebo Effect research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 9% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Pain Management and Placebo Effect.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

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

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Pain Management and Placebo Effect as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.017% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Pain Management and Placebo Effect0.018% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Pain Management and Placebo Effect over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Pain Management and Placebo Effect10.2% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

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.

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