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Tips to lower prescription costs in 2009: Part 3 of 5. Rethink generics
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Do your aging parents resist generic medication because they think brand-named drugs work better? In this new economic reality, it may be time to think again.
Your beliefs about the power of your medication influence the response you get from them. The way the mind contributes to the body's response to medication is called the placebo effect. When doctors study new drugs, one group of patients gets the study drug with the active ingredient, and another group gets a sugar pill or placebo. Up to 20% of the people taking the sugar pill get the same measurable response as the patients who get the active ingredient. It's the belief in the sugar pill that offers the result.
How does this work? The mind-body connection is an area of active research that may represent the most promising frontiers in medicine. While the placebo affect may sound woo-woo, it most likely works by a similar mechanism that causes your heart to race in response to fear or your face to turn red when you're embarrassed.
The placebo response predicts that if your parents believe that brand named drugs work better than generics, they will be proven correct. If they believe that generics work as well as brand-named drugs, they, too, will be proven correct.
How do you motivate your parents to take a second look at generics? It's usually not with fact sheets from the FDA that speak to the logical left brain; it's with stories that are the language of the integrative right brain. Ask the pharmacist to tell stories about satisfied customers who use generics. Ask the doctor if other patients who use generics might be willing to talk with your parents about their experience with generics. The left brain that balances the checkbook dollars may allow your parents to see that generics make sense.
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