Study: Expensive Placebos More Effective than Cheap Ones
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Jeffrey Hamilton/Digital Vision/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A new study shows that placebos are more effective when they cost more.
Researchers looked at data from 12 patients with moderate to severe Parkinson’s disease who were told they were being given one injection that was a more expensive version of a new drug and one injection that was a cheap version. In fact, patients were given saline — a placebo — both times. According to the study, published in the journal Neurology, patients had their brain activity and motor function measured to determine effectiveness.
While neither placebo was as effective as the Parkinson’s drug levodopa, the expensive version of the placebo prompted better performance on motor skills tests. “Perceptions of cost,” the researchers determined, “are capable of altering the placebo response in clinical studies.”
Dr. Alberto Espay, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine, said in a press release that “if we can find strategies to harness the placebo response to enhance the benefits of treatments, we could potentially maximize the benefit of treatment while reducing the dosage of drugs needed and possibly reducing side effects.”
Because the study involved such a small sample of participants, further research may be needed to prove the findings.
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