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Controls, Placebo, and Expectancies in Behavioral Obesity Research

Kevin Fontaine, Ph.D.

Dr. Kevin Fontaine’s obesity-related research has focused on the association of obesity to mortality, clinical obesity treatment, relation of obesity to cancer screening and preventive care, and the quality of life among obese persons. He has also conducted hundreds of intervention groups with overweight and obese adults to promote lifestyle changes.

His other research has focused on the role of lifestyle physical activity in improving health status, symptoms, and body composition in adults with and without chronic disease. Recent interests include the role of low carbohydrate diets on preserving lean mass during weight loss among older adults, the effects of ketogenic diets on type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s, and cancer, neuro-dynamic strain in chronic fatigue syndrome, and the effects of non-deceptive placebos to improve patient-reported outcomes such as pain and fatigue. Dr. Fontaine serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has nearly 30 years of experience conducting obesity-related lifestyle modification trials, serving as PI, Co-PI, co-Investigator or interventionist on numerous private foundation and NIH grants.

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Controls, Placebos, and Expectancies in Behavioral Obesity Research