After my visit at Johns Hopkins University my perspective on affective disorders has changed, and the dimensional approach seemed to be scientifically and clinically the right paradigm to tackle these complex disorders. Treating many patients suffering from depression, pain syndromes, and depression with comorbid pain symptoms, I became acquainted with the predominant placebo effect typical to these disorders.  Accordingly, I decided to focus my research on the dimension of pain in depression and the possible role of the placebo effect in the treatment of depression and in clinical practice. Accordingly, we set up a lab at my hospital and started to conduct research on the interrelations between pain, depression and the placebo effect.