Eli5: what is the difference between a generic drug to the original drug, and why do some doctors will swear by the original drug?

Question

Eli5: what is the difference between a generic drug to the original drug, and why do some doctors will swear by the original drug?

In: 1046

Answer 1

I think other posts have described the difference between generic and brand name well, but I can’t see anyone mentioning a decent reason for prescribing brand name drugs, and that’s the placebo effect.

Put simply for some conditions, particularly those self reporting like pain release brand name drugs work better than generic because people think they are better, even if the ingredients are the same.

Just the first couple of links when I googled to check:

[https://academic.oup.com/painmedicine/article/16/10/1967/2460471](https://academic.oup.com/painmedicine/article/16/10/1967/2460471)

[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brand-name-generic-drugs-placebo-effect/](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brand-name-generic-drugs-placebo-effect/)