Beecher as Clinical Investigator: Pain and the Placebo Effect

Among the many contributions by Henry Beecher to science and clinical practice, pain and the placebo effect certainly represent two of the most important aspects. On the one hand, Beecher considered the pain experience not only as arising from the peripheral injured tissues, but also as an emotional experience that is capable of modulating the nociceptive input. On the other hand, he analyzed the placebo effect at an unprecedented level for that time. His ideas sparked from his work on wounded soldiers during World War II. In spite of the unusual situation and the lack of sophisticated experimental tools on the battlefield, Beecher succeeded in putting forward several important concepts, and his ideas still pervade modern health care and research.