Expensive meds might make you feel worse — if you expect them to

Pricier drugs might make you feel worse — if you expect to experience negative side effects, according to a new study.

Researchers tested a sham anti-itch cream on 49 people, who were told the cream would make their skin more sensitive to pain. Some received the fake medication in a sleek, blue box that looked like a pricy brand-name product; others got a fake cream in an orange box that resembled a generic. The people who tried the “expensive” sham cream reported feeling more pain, according to a study published this week in Science. And it wasn’t all in their heads, either: those people had increased activity in certain brain areas and the spinal cord, which carries pain signals to the brain.

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