Tuesday, September 21, 2010

BQOTD: Medical Trials

Today's Burning Question of the Day: Would you ever participate in any sort of medical trial?

My allergist's office often has medical trials. I qualify for one of the upcoming ones, and I think that I'm going to participate. It's for a drug that hasn't been FDA approved yet (this trial is needed first), but has been tested before without any major complications.

So far, most people that I've told have looked at me like I have seven heads. But I figure that if others hadn't been willing to participate in trials before me, I wouldn't have access to some of the medicine that I do now to help with my allergies and asthma. I guess that I just figure that it's worth it to see if something is more effective, and risk the most commonly reported side effect, which is a headache.

Plus, the compensation package is pretty awesome--it's a one month study and pays $600!

11 comments:

  1. I was waiting for antibiotics the other night at midnight and was reading about a trial for people with sprained ankles. I didn't qualify age wise (they wanted teenagers), but totally would have done it otherwise.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree...I totally would have done it...$600 for maybe a few headaches...psssh! Sign me up :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes - I definitely would... no question. These trials are necessary for a drug to be approved and your health and safety are always monitored closely during the trial.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I did with my LASIK surgery. The actual surgery wasn't the trial, but the program I participated in after wards was. I was able to get the LASIK at half price and $1000 after I completed the program. I ended up being in the placebo group so I could have gone back and done the actual test but it would have been 6 more weeks of going to the eye doctor three times a week!

    There is a place in this area that is always doing medical trials and advertising on the radio. I have looked into them a few times, but it usually is for over night stays and I would have to miss out on work.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The biggest question I would have is if they know of any possible side effects, and if so, what are they? I mean, if it's something like headaches, drymouth, that kind of thing, I'd go for it in a minute. If it was something like hair loss or weight gain... or cancer (a dermatologist actually prescribed me a lip balm that may cause cancer once!), I think I'd have to pass.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I would be in - barring any side effects that would be worse than your current symptoms. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I wouldn't for medicines/drugs but the hospital here is doing one for people under going major surgery and using music to help relieve stress so if I had a major surgery then I would!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I say why not? You made a good point by saying you might not have access to other meds if it weren't for people that did the testing.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I totally would do one! I had a lot of friends that had their wisdom teeth out in college as part of a medical study.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I almost did one over the summer. For a vaccine against one of the common bacteria that causes food poisoning. They told me they were full, but that they would contact me for the next one, which turned out to be Dengue Fever. I had no interest in being infected with some crazy African virus, so I said thanks but no thanks. But I'd totally be open to doing on.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I would totally do it as long as I wasn't being infected with some crazy disease or the side-effects had long term potentially serious consequences.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting La Buena Vida and taking the time to leave a comment--I love hearing from you!

Please know that you do not need to agree with me in order to leave a comment! All comments that are respectful and not anonymous will be published. Thanks again for visiting!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Blog Archive

 

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.