Jon David Levine is an American neuroscientist known for his research on pain and analgesia, particularly in the field of placebo studies.
[1] He is a professor of Medicine, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and Neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
In 1978, he published an influential study showing that placebo analgesia could be blocked by the opioid antagonist naloxone.
[3][4] According to Fabrizio Benedetti (one of Levine's students),[5] this study represents the point when "the biology of placebo was born".
[6] He has also published research showing that kappa agonist painkillers are more effective for women than for men.