Professional Research Subjects: Paid Guinea Pigs?
The concept of earning something of a living by volunteering for clinical trials is not new. Clinical trials often pay volunteers to participate. Payment usually reflects to some degree the time required by the participant, as well as the discomfort and risk s/he will experience. A clinical trial requiring a 24-hour presence in a hospital setting to undergo safety monitoring for a drug which may have unpleasant side effects, for example, may pay several hundred dollars or more a day and may last a week or more.
This may be an appealing employment option for some, including the unemployed, those who are "between jobs," students, and others. Usually, the volunteers are healthy individuals, as required by the research protocols. Healthy, that is, until they subject themselves to potentially risky effects of the drug being tested. And that's the real challenge - balancing the desire of the subjects to enroll (for the money) and the desire of the researchers to enroll subjects against the risk (largely unknown both in nature and degree) to the subjects of enrolling in early phase testing.
That said, potential research participants and the clinical researchers who would enroll them should keep a few key issues in mind. Next time, I'll introduce those issues, which should also be of interest to health care providers of individuals considering volunteering for clinical trials.
~Joe
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: clinical trials, health-and-wellness
This may be an appealing employment option for some, including the unemployed, those who are "between jobs," students, and others. Usually, the volunteers are healthy individuals, as required by the research protocols. Healthy, that is, until they subject themselves to potentially risky effects of the drug being tested. And that's the real challenge - balancing the desire of the subjects to enroll (for the money) and the desire of the researchers to enroll subjects against the risk (largely unknown both in nature and degree) to the subjects of enrolling in early phase testing.
That said, potential research participants and the clinical researchers who would enroll them should keep a few key issues in mind. Next time, I'll introduce those issues, which should also be of interest to health care providers of individuals considering volunteering for clinical trials.
~Joe
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: clinical trials, health-and-wellness
Labels: clinical trials
7 Comments:
Interesting. Have you ever read "Fire Starter" by Stephen King? The parents of the little girl fire starter participated in clinical trials for money, and they ended up having "super powers" and a pyromaniac child. I don't think the possible side effects outweigh the cash.
Aside from the great fiction works by S. King, the reality of clinical trials are potential risks to health. (A pyromaniac child, while not a good situation, is not as bad as serious or terminal illnesses. At least pyromania can be treated with psychiatrists, counseling etc)
Like that great wiseguy Rumsfeld said, "There are known unknowns" and that can be applied to clinical trials. Who knows what side effects will take place within 1 or 20 years of experimental medicine.
Then again, as long as the trials are ethical and made as safe as can possibly be, medical advancements can happen.
How interesting to refernce science fiction writings to the reality of human health. If it wasn't for clinical trials and the advance of the available medications that we have now, we would have a life span of less then 50 years of age. Think of a clinical trial the next time you have a headache and pop a tylenol or ibuprophen without having to see the town leach.
I do agree that without clinical trials we would not be able to advance in treatment options for the future ..
We also need to acknowledge that there are drug companies that DO NOT pay the participants of their trials but rather use people that have no other options for medications..
This can be a benefit to the participant when they have no other options if they are given the real med and/or a full recommended dosage for their particular disease..
We do sign a consent form that goes over most everything about the risks and benefits of that drug in the trial..
The thing that people don't seem to know is that as unpaid participants even if we complete the trial from start to finish and find that we were not given real drug or a full recommended dosage , even after the drug is approved because of our participation in their trials we won't always receive real drug in recommended dosages...
We can spend as much as years in these trials, unpaid and then we are forgotten by these multibillion dollar companies..
After our participation we have to pay for that same drug that we just spent years helping them get approved..
It would be a logical move for the drug companies to provide drug free of cost to the subjects that completed their studies if in fact they recieved placebo or a lower than recommended dose..
My last thought, try spending 2 years in a study and then being told by that drug company that if you want real drug it will cost you thousands of dollars...I can guarantee it will make you feel like a guinea pig..Very used!
Coming from somone who works for a relatively new (5 years) start-up medical company, if it weren't for clinical trials, I would not be getting a paycheck. So for me, the cash completely outweighs the possible side effects. And the studies and protocols I have seen have all turned out really good, and have actually really helped a lot of people who once were in pain. I mean would they really do a trial with something that they thought could really hurt you? Yeah there is always the small chance that someone could really get sick/hurt. But are you going to stop crossing the street because a car might hit you?
I had surgery on 12/28/06 and have a condition that occured after my surgery that I was told could take years to heal. Not being able to live a normal life after a simple operation that was supposed to help me YES clinical trials are very important. Maybe someone can find a way to treat Post PPH syndrome.
Maria,
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