Why I tell patients that their pills are expensive

I’VE long been fascinated by the placebo effect in medicine, the psychological phenomenon whereby a patient’s condition improves after taking a ‘remedy’ that has no known therapeutic effect — simply because they expect it to make them better.

Studies show that between 20 and 30 per cent of patients given such a dummy-pill will report improvements.

It’s a perfect illustration of the power of the mind — and of how little we understand about its interaction with the body.

We already know that blue pills are more effective than red ones at treating mental health conditions because patients consider blue to be more calming and relaxing.

And if I’m prescribing an expensive drug, I often tell the patient what it costs, because studies show that the placebo effect is greater when a patient feels there is financial investment in their treatment.

In a new book, Dr Wayne Jonas, a professor of medicine at Georgetown University in Washington DC, says his research shows that for a treatment to have the optimum effect, a doctor must ‘ emotionally connect’ with a patient — not just understand their symptoms, but also what the diagnosis means to the person.

In other words, the patient has to feel the doctor really cares.

This is something that all doctors can do — and it’s yet another reason for patients to see the same GP or consultant through the course of their treatment.

Unfortunately, that’s a rarity in the modern NHS.