Pill loyalty: Depending on shape and color
All content is checked by medical journalists.MunichSame active ingredient, different look: copycat products are just as effective as the originals, but look different. This affects the patients: they swallow a newly prescribed drug less reliably than the familiar pills.
Saved money, endangered health?
Imitation products, so-called generics, are cheaper than original products - and still have the same effect. The problem, however, is that compliance with tablets appears to decrease when patients receive medication in an unusual shape and color. Researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston have now found out. If it is taken irregularly, the risk of falling ill again, becoming more seriously ill or even dying increases.
Income loyalty of heart patients
Dr. Aaron Kesselheim and his team examined the intake behavior of 11,523 patients with cardiovascular diseases.
Within one year, 29 percent of the participants received another preparation with the same active ingredient, but with a different color or shape. As a result, a significant number of these patients no longer took their medication as prescribed. The probability of irregular intake increased by 34 percent when changing color and by as much as 66 percent when changing shape. "Patients may be unsettled or confused by a change," speculate the scientists.
Requires the same appearance
Therefore, they recommend matching the appearance of chemically identical generics and choosing the same shape and color. Until then, it is important that doctors and pharmacists clearly inform their patients that a different design does not change the medical effect of the pills.
Not the original
If patients take generics just as regularly as original preparations, they will benefit from the cheaper alternative as well as from the original. Generics are also thoroughly checked by the responsible authorities and only approved when they can be classified as safe. In addition, the manufacturers must prove that a generic is bioequivalent to the original, i.e. that the active ingredient is absorbed just as quickly and in the same amount and is available at the site of action. (vv)
Source: Kesselheim, A. et al. Burden of Changes in Pill Appearance for Patients Receiving Generic Cardiovascular Medications After Myocardial Infarction: Cohort and Nested Case-Control Studies. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2014; 161: 96-103. doi: 10.7326 / M13
