Rief's research examines the psychological factors involved in the development, maintenance and management of physical complaints, including investigations of somatic symptom disorders and placebo effects.

[2] He was also nominated as a member of the expert commission of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and World Health Organization (WHO) "Somatic Presentations of Mental Disorders" for the preparation of DSM-5 (Beijing, 2006).

[4] Since 2024, he is also spokesperson of the LOEWE Center DYNAMIC, a publicly funded cooperation between various universities and other research institutions.

[11] For many years, Rief's scientific work focused on the investigation of psychological factors in the development, maintenance and management of physical complaints.

[12] Together with Prof. Hiller (Mainz) he developed the frequently used questionnaire procedure SOMS (Screening for Somatoform Symptoms).

[14] In 2009, the German version of ICD-10 GM introduced the new diagnosis F45.41 "Chronic pain with mental and somatic factors".

Since Jan 01, 2024, Rief is spokesperson of the LOEWE Center DYNAMIC, a cooperation of universities (Frankfurt, Gießen, Marburg, Darmstadt) and other research institutes (DIPF; ESI).

The government of Hessen supports this initiative to develop new models for understanding mental disorders with 15 Bio EUR for the first period until 2027.