Drug costs skyrocket & produce unintended consequences

In a previous post, I discussed the skyrocketing and inexplicable costs of common prescription drugs. But a recent study has elaborated on (potentially) unintended consequences of drug costs skyrocketing.

Many physicians are surprised by our patients' response to prescription medication price increases. Patients often are willing to pay the increase without question, rather than change to an equally effective but less costly alternative. I'm not the only one who has noticed this phenomenon. 

Now a medical study published in Science showed that patients expectations of effectiveness and also side effects are closely tied to cost of the medicine. Although the authors don't state this, I suspect that patients expect costly medicines to be more potent.

Whether this is an unintended consequence of the pricing or a strategic business strategy of drug manufacturers that fully understand this peculiarity of human behavior isn't known. But I have my suspicions...