Over-the-counter pills' color affects patients' perception of medication

Study researchers from the PhD cell of the SIES College of Management Studies (SIES COMS), Navi Mumbai, India, further revealed that women like to take red colored tablets while men prefer pink ones.

While commenting on the new study findings, study authors SIES COMS director RK Srivastava and his PhD student Aarti More explained in their press statement, “Patients undergo a sensory experience every time they self-administer a drug, whether it's swallowing a tablet or capsule, chewing a tablet, swallowing a liquid, or applying a cream or ointment.”

Interestingly, this ritual of taking colored tablets makes patient think positively/negatively about the effectiveness of the treatment, added study authors.

About study findings
To arrive at this intriguing conclusion, Srivastava along with fellow researcher More interviewed nearly 600 people and found that 75 percent of them linked the color of the tablet with drug compliance.

Researchers were surprised to find that color of the medicine not just influenced patients’ perception of treatment, but also made them form opinions about the taste of the tablet.

Interestingly, 14 percent of the participants revealed that they thought pink colored tablets are more likely to be sweeter in taste as compared to red ones.

Majority of participants in survey labeled yellow colored tablets as salty without even knowing whether it actually tasted salty or not.

Eleven percent people reported that they believe all white or blue color tablets are bitter in taste, while 10 percent participants said that they thought all orange-color tablets to be sour in taste.

In short, people’s opinion of tablet/pills taste is normally based on medications' color.

Colored tablets can have placebo effect?
Study researchers concluded, there’s no doubt that patients form their judgments about medications, at times based on color, even before they start taking them and the experience stays with them.

“Patients react to the color of the medicine. The color has a placebo effect. If a depressed patient is given an anti-depressant tablet in maroon color, he will not like it, and so the medicine will not be effective.

"If people are given medicines of a color of their liking, they will be more effective. The study will help consumers and also pharmaceutical companies in packaging their products based on the consumers’ liking,” said Srivastava.

The study findings appear in the ‘International Journal of Biotechnology.’