3 ms·
Pill color and other visual characteristics affect the placebo effect. This affects design even outside the US.
by lozenge 4y ago
Pill color and other visual characteristics affect the placebo effect. This affects design even outside the US.
- rsynnott 4y agoI'd question how much this plays into pill design; I suspect it's mostly branding. Back in the day I used to take the antidepressant venlafaxine (Effexor in the US). The pharmacy would give me whichever manufacturer's version they had on the day; the pills all looked completely different. EDIT: Further evidence. Here (Ireland), advertising of pharmaceuticals is generally illegal, but certain over the counter pharmaceuticals can be advertised. And those ones _do_ usually have very consistent pill design; ~all paracetamol pills look basically the same as each other, despite having tens of manufacturers, as do all ibuprofen pills.