The Pain Relief Foundation started the Annual Lecture as a Millennium project. Each year an eminent pain physician or scientist is invited to lecture on a topic currently of interest, in pain research or management. The lecture is given each year in honour of a person who contributed much to the field of pain treatment or research during his or her career. A short presentation about their life and work is given before the lecture by a fellow academic or clinician.

The inaugural lecture was given by Russell Portenoy in the year 2000.

Continuing with the theme of Annual Lectures in which we explore all aspects of chronic pain, the 2024 Lecture The Placebo Effect will be presented by Professor Frabrizio Benedetti who is Professor of physiology and neuroscience at the University of Turin Medical School in Turin, Italy and a researcher in the field of placebo studies. His research findings include the placebo effect reducing symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, pain and hypoxia. Professor Benedetti has written multiple book chapters and his research is published in leading scientific journals where he has been highly cited. He is considered to have influenced the scientific community in the placebo and nocebo response, making research in this area ‘respectable’ throughout his career, Professor Fabrizio has won numerous academic awards from worldwide institutions. He is regularly interviewed on podcasts for comment on his research into the psychosocial factors that can generate illness.  He is a member of the Academy of Europe and the European Dana Alliance for the Brain. His book Placebo Effects: Understanding the mechanisms in health and disease won the British Medical Association’s Highly Commended Book Award.

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