Ted J Kaptchuk

Ted Jack Kaptchuk (born August 17, 1947) is an American medical researcher who holds professorships in medicine and in global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School. He researches the placebo effect within the field of placebo studies.

Early life and education Kaptchuk was born in Brooklyn, New York; his parents were both Polish Holocaust survivors. He holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Columbia University, where he co-founded the university's chapter of Students for a Democratic Society,

Career Kaptchuk had an herbal and acupuncture clinic in Boston for many years starting in 1976. Although he does not have a medical degree, Some of this work suggests that placebos may still work despite disclosure that they are placebos.

Kaptchuk has served on panels for the NIH and FDA, and worked as a medical writer for the BBC. He has written more than 300 peer-reviewed publications (h-index=100, i-index=275).

Kaptchuk has been awarded three Lifetime Achievement Awards including Society of Acupuncture in 2015, Society of Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies in 2021, and the William Silen Lifetime Achievement Award in Mentoring from Harvard Medical School in 2022.

Personal life Kaptchuk is an observant Jew.

Books The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983. The Healing Arts: Exploring the Medical Ways of the World, Summit Books, 1987. Miller FG, Colloca L, Crouch RA, Kaptchuk TJ (eds). The Placebo: A Reader. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.