Professor of neuroscientific psychology, visiting professor abroad, at, e.g., Harvard Medical School, USA.

Research focus: Psychological and neurobiological mechanisms involved in placebo and nocebo effects across disorders of the central nervous system, for instance pain, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. These mechanisms are studied in relation to pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments such as surgery, deep brain stimulation, spinal cord stimulation, psychotherapy, music, acupuncture, physiotherapy and animal-assisted therapy.

Research funding: My research is funded by the Lundbeckfonden, the Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond, the Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond, the Innovationsfonden, the National Institute of Health, the Innovative Medicine Initiative and International Network Programme, the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation. In addition, several projects are funded by the Trygfonden and the Parkinsonforeningen.

Publications and outreach: I have more than 100 peer-reviewed international publications, and my research has been published in leading journals such as The Lancet, The British Medical Journal, The Lancet Neurology, JAMA Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. My research has been cited in international media such as the New York Times, Der Spiegel and the Sydney Morning Herald, and I frequently present my research at international conferences such as the World Congress of Pain.

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Assistant Professor at the PN Research Lab, Neuroscientific Research Unit

Research focus: My primary research areas include non-pharmacological treatment of pain and placebo effects on pain, focusing on underlying psychological and neurobiological mechanisms.

Background: About 20% of the Danish population suffer from and live with pain. Around the world, there is an increase in the number of chronic pain patients and a growing opioid crisis in terms of excessive use and dependency of opioid drugs; therefore there is a distinct need for non-pharmacological, complementary methods for treatment of pain. A decisive factor for the use of such treatments – e.g., music and animal-assisted therapy – is that there is no risk for side effects as is often the case with ordinary medical treatments. At the same time, there is a need for more stringent methods of investigation documenting the effect of such treatments. Therefore, in cooperation with researchers from, for instance, Center for Music in the Brain and Harvard Medical School, I study which specific and non-specific components are involved in complementary pain treatment in order to specify how they influence our experience of pain and underlying neurobiology.

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Fokusområder: Min forskning beskæftiger sig primært med patienter med svære kroniske smerter, som behandles via rygmarvsstimulering. Jeg undersøger, hvordan patienternes forventninger om behandlingseffekt påvirker deres oplevelse af behandlingen.

Baggrund for forskning: Rygmarvsstimulering er en behandling, der anvendes i klinisk praksis til patienter med svære kroniske smerter, som har udtømt andre behandlingsmuligheder. Behandlingen, der involverer implantering af en elektrode i rygmarven, er forbundet med flere risici, herunder infektion og elektrodevandring. Eksisterende forskning, der bekræfter effekten af behandlingen, er primært sponsoreret af industrien, f.eks. producenterne af stimuleringsapparaterne. Det er derfor nødvendigt at undersøge effekten af behandlingen nærmere i et placebo-kontrolleret studie. I samarbejde med klinikere og forskere fra bl.a. Aarhus Universitetshospital undersøger jeg bl.a., hvordan forventninger om behandlingseffekt spiller sammen med oplevet effekt hos patienter, der modtager rygmarvsstimulering som behandling. Foruden at gøre os klogere på effekten af rygmarvsstimulering vil undersøgelsen bidrage med indsigter i, hvem behandlingen virker for, hvilke mekanismer der ligger bag, og på hvilke fysiologiske og psykologiske parametre behandlingen er effektiv.

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Mette Sieg, MSc (health psychology), PhD student

PhD student at the PN Research Lab, Neuroscientific Research Unit

Research focus: My research primarily concerns the negative effects of informed consent and how these effects are mediated and moderated by patient expectations, doctor-patient relationship and other contextual factors.

Background: Informed consent is an important foundation in the practitioner-patient relation and fundamental patient rights. However, some studies have indicated that the information patients are given regarding treatment before giving informed consent, may actually increase the risk of experiencing side effects subsequently. This means that, by respecting the patient’s right to informed consent, the practitioner may potentially harm the patient unnecessarily. As this research area is relatively new, our knowledge about the negative effects of informed consent is still sparse. I cooperate with researchers from Maryland University, the University of Toledo and Aarhus University Hospital, on investigations of how much information on side effects the general population wish to have and to which degree information on side effects influences the prevalence of side effects in connection with heart surgery. All of this in an attempt to uncover how the nocebo effect of informed consent is best minimized in clinical practice.

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PhD student at the PN Research Lab, Neuroscientific Research Unit

Focus areas: In my research, I investigate how to optimize the treatment of motor symptoms and pain in patients with Parkinson's disease. 

Research background: Motor symptoms is one of the most impairing features of Parkinson's disease, and up to 95% of people with Parkinson´s disease experience pain, which often has a significant impact on quality of life. Levodopa is the most widely used treatment for motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease and in addition, it has a positive effect on pain in Parkinson’s disease. However, the effect of levodopa often wears off after a few years of administration. Thus, the primary aim of my research is to investigate how we can optimize levodopa's effect on motor symptoms and pain in patients with Parkinson's disease. In my research, I collaborate with fellow scholars from Aarhus University Hospital etc.. The purpose of my research is to optimize knowledge on how we can improve treatment of motor symptoms and pain in patients with Parkinson's disease.  

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PhD student at the PN Research Lab, Neuroscientific Research Unit

Focus areas: My research primarily concerns the use of audiovisual interventions, including virtual reality, for pain management in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Research background: Rheumatoid arthritis is a widespread chronic autoimmune disease that often significantly affects individual life expression and quality of life. Around 50% of patients with rheumatoid arthritis experience chronic, persistent pain that is difficult to treat with conventional methods. Therefore, there is a pronounced need for effective, non-pharmacological treatment methods for this patient group. In collaboration with researchers and clinicians from the Clinic for Joint and Connective Tissue Diseases at Aarhus University Hospital, my research investigates how virtual reality can be used to alleviate pain and increase self-management in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The purpose of this knowledge is to improve the way we investigate the effect of virtual reality interventions and to enhance the established treatment offerings for patients with chronic arthritis pain.

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Research focus: My research primarily deals with clinical trials in pain conditions, specifically migraines, focusing on placebo research evaluating novel methods for accurate drug effect estimations and complex interactions between drug and placebo responses. Other areas of research include orofacial pain and headache disorders, neurorehabilitation, sensorimotor function, brain stimulation, special care dentistry.

Background: The randomized controlled trial (RCT) is a gold standard in developing and testing new drugs including for migraine. In a RCT, typically an active drug is compared to an inactive placebo. Recently, research have indicated that some assumptions underlying RCT may be incorrect leading to miscalculation of the actual drug response accounting for large placebo responses. As a result, promising new compounds fail to outperform placebo in RCTs, which leads to the conclusion that the drug is not effective. Recently, there has been great progress in the development of migraine treatments, especially preventive treatments. On the other hand, there are also increasing discussions on anti-migraine trials for how the true value of treatment effects should be assessed. To resolve this problem, we will develop and assess an improved method for testing the efficacy of new drugs that is able to account for the complex relationship between drug and placebo responses.

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