Anyone who's been to the pharmacy to pick out a medicine will be familiar with the huge variety of different shapes, sizes and colours available - the latter is particularly noticeable, with modern gel capsules being able to be tinted to any one of 80,000 combinations, and tablets able to take on a range of colours and tints.

Obviously these different colours and shapes help with brand recognition and consumer spending, but do they have any other effects? Is it possible that colour can actually impact on the efficacy of a drug?

According to recent research, colour can have a major impact not only on how likely we are to take any given medication, but it can actually change how effective the drug is. For example, studies have shown that red pills are far more effective as stimulants, white works best for painkillers, yellow for antidepressants and blue for sedatives.

This infographic from Cartridge People brings together all of the research in one beautiful, coherent design: