New research from the University of Cincinnati shows ‘higher priced placebo’ drugs prove to be more effective than those perceived to be cheaper.
This may give pharmaceutical companies a reason to defend the high price of drugs (e.g. “If people pay more for real drugs, they will have more faith that they will work, and there will be an added placebo effect on top of the real drug.)
This study may support those who charge higher prices for self-help products or services. (e.g. “People won’t believe in it if it’s cheap or free.”)
This raises the question, should people be charged more for products and services just because paying more might give them more faith in it or make them more committed?
It’s that just an excuse to defend the greed of those selling?
For those who do use these excuses to charge more, would they be willing to give the additional money to charity instead of pocketing it?
Further Reading
In addition to the official story found on the University of Cincinnati website, here are several links so you can read more about the study.
- Medical News Today – “Expensive Parkinson’s drugs may produce ‘bigger placebo effect‘” (29 Jan 2015)
- Reuters – “‘Expensive’ placebo beats ‘cheap’ one in Parkinson’s disease: study” (28 Jan 2015)
- University of Cincinnati – “Study: Perceptions of Drug’s Cost May Affect How Much Patients Benefit ” (28 Jan 2015)
- Wall Street Hedge – “Placebo’s efficacy depends upon how expensive patients consider it” (29 Jan 2015)
Citations
In the stories linked above, you’ll notice how common it is for news agencies to leave out appropriate citations for their articles. This is a disservice to readers who would like to do further research on topics. Presumably news reporters don’t want to make it easy for competing news agencies to find the source and write up their own reports. We feel it’s important to citations and sources for further reading, so that’s why we list them.