Where this is most seen to negative effect is in heroin users who shoot up in an unfamiliar place. A spate of users overdosing in the late ’80s/early ’90s lead to researchers concluding that where users took the drug had an affect on it’s effectiveness to the user. A heroin user who had their regular dose at home, would overdose on that same amount when they took it in a public place (e.g. a public toilet.)

The unfamiliarity of surroundings would make the user’s body treat it as a stronger dose than usual, causing the overdose.

I may not be explaining this well as I learnt about this in my degree, which was in the mid-late ’90s. Questions that come to mind now are – is this because they are more tense due to the chance of discovery, and what effect would that have, is the heroin from the same source as they use at home, were they more desperate to take it and more stressed because of that? Unfortunately I can’t remember the answers to any of this.

However, if the original research was rigorous it would be interesting to see if placebos administered in a hospital or doctors would have a stronger effect than those taken at home. Hmm, that could be down to the psychological effect of them being more important, so it’d be looking at that rather than unfamiliar surroundings. More thought needs to go in to my study. Making participants take the placebos in a range of public toilets seems somewhat extreme, have to think of something else. Hmm.