Ted J. Kaptchuk, MD

Director, Program in Placebo Studies & Therapeutic Encounter

Ted J. Kaptchuk, MD

Director, Program in Placebo Studies & Therapeutic Encounter

Research Concentrations

  • Placebo Effects
  • Asian & Traditional Medicine

Professional Biography

Ted Kaptchuk is a Professor of Medicine and Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the research faculty at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Ted is deeply committed to multi-disciplinary research and has completed pioneering clinical research in asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, episodic migraine, and chronic pain. He has conducted significant neurobiological studies of the placebo effect, produced historical analyses of the placebo effect and placebo controls, published ethical assessments of the use of placebos in clinical practice and research and designed the first studies of patients’ experiences while being treated by placebos.  Ted is also a lecturer in Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Ted received a BA in East Asian Studies from Columbia University in 1968 and graduated with a degree in Chinese medicine from the Macao Institute of Chinese Medicine (China) in 1975. From 1999 to 2011, Ted was Associate Director of the Osher Research Center at Harvard Medical School. He was a member of NCCAM’s National Advisory Council from 1999 to 2010 and an expert panelist for the FDA from 2001 to 2005.