About the Authors

Ted J. Kaptchuk

ted_kaptchuk@hms.harvard.edu

Affiliations Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Osher Research Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Elizabeth Friedlander

Affiliation Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

John M. Kelley

Affiliations Psychology Department, Endicott College, Beverly, Massachusetts, United States of America, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

M. Norma Sanchez

Affiliation Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Efi Kokkotou

Affiliation Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Joyce P. Singer

Affiliation Osher Research Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Magda Kowalczykowski

Affiliation Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Franklin G. Miller

Affiliation Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Irving Kirsch

Affiliation Department of Psychology, University of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom

Anthony J. Lembo

Affiliation Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Competing Interests

AJL has worked as a consultant for Ironwood, GSK, Salix, Alkermes, and Ardelyx. These companies have had no relationship to this study. All other authors report no competing interest or appearance of competing interest.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: TJK JMK EK FGM IK AJL. Performed the experiments: AJL EF JMK MNS JPS MK. Analyzed the data: JMK AJL IK TJK MK JPS. Wrote the paper: TJK AJL JMK FGM IK EK.