The Effect of Marketing Variable on Effect of Active Drugs

Hadassah Medical Center

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Pain

Treatments: Drug: Low price; Drug: No price; Drug: Free of charge; Drug: Low price participants aware paying part; Drug: High price

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01493908

1727-HMO-CTIL

Details and patient eligibility

About

The efficacy of the placebo effect has been proved in many prior studies by comparing the symptoms and measures of patients. Placebo has been proved to help in treating illnesses such as depression, stomach ulcer and chronic headaches.

A Meta analysis checked 47 studies about placebo and showed great significance when a patient is treated with placebo pill, no active substance, just by activating conditioning and expectation mechanism in his body, thus providing to the healing process, and that is it's importance.

In recent years studies established a relationship between marketing variables (such as price, label) to the efficacy of a product. In addition- a unique research run in 2008 showed a significant relationship between the marketing strategies and the efficacy of medication; more specifically, patients in this research experienced less (controlled) pain when treated with placebo medication introduced to them as more expensive than patients treated with placebo medication that was introduced to them as much cheaper. All patients were treated with the exact same medication.

In the investigator's experiment the investigators design a laboratory experiment to determine if marketing factors could invoke the placebo effects described earlier. For the initial laboratory experiment, we decided to examine the difference in price, on the efficacy of an OTC analgesic through the mediation of low- voltage electrical pulses to the patient's wrist.

The investigators study hypothesis is that marketing variables such as price and brand name will affect the therapeutic efficacy of an analgesic, i.e. a medicine will have greater influence when the patient is aware of its price compared to one who is not.

Enrollment: 220 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Healthy Volunteer participants will be between the ages of 18 and 65

Exclusion criteria

• Candidates who have had a history of cardiac problems, epilepsy, diabetes, or are pregnant will be excluded.
• Taking no pain medication at the time of the experiment.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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220 participants in 5 patient groups

High price

Active Comparator group

Treatment:

Drug: High price

Low price

Active Comparator group

Treatment:

Drug: Low price

Low price participants aware paying part

Active Comparator group

Treatment:

Drug: Low price participants aware paying part

No price

Active Comparator group

Treatment:

Drug: No price

Free of charge

Active Comparator group

Treatment:

Drug: Free of charge