Monday, October 12, 2009

Is being a paid volunteer for medical research safe?

I've applied to be a paid volunteer at a local clinic. What can i expect? And most importantly: Is being a paid volunteer safe?
Answer:
We'll take the last part first. Any medical research has some risks. There may be side-effects that the researchers don't know about or that may only appear in humans. All reputable research projects are required to make sure that the subjects are aware of the known risks before anything, I mean, anything gets started. This is known as "informed consent"Now, as to what to expect -- The best way I can answer this is to relate my own experience as a test subject. On the day the research project was supposed to start, all the subjects were gathered into one room along with the people who were conducting the investigation. We were told what it was we would be helping to investigate, the method of the experiment, what the general structure of the experiment would be, possible side-effects that were known from similar or previous tests -- in short, just about everything the researchers had come up with for conducting the experiment.After all that, we were given a test on what had been presented. Anyone failing the test was excused as they either didn't understand what was going to happen or hadn't paid attention. We then signed a slough of papers (medical histories, release forms, contact info, etc.) We were then told what to bring with us into the isolation are, what we couldn't bring and so forth.In this particular case, they were testing a drug against E. coli induced diarrhea. It was a double-blind study so nobody -- not the subjects nor the monitoring people -- knew who got the drug or who got a placebo. We were in isolation so we could be monitored and to prevent accidental contamination in either direction. After a day or so, we were given our doses followed the next day by a weakened strain of E. coli bacteria.The result wasn't pretty as a number of us (presumably the ones who had gotten the placebo) ended up on IVs for fluid replacement. However, nobody died or were seriously injured. Most of were discommoded somewhat and then recommoded when another wave hit. Overall, it was fairly interesting and I got a lot of good information from the researchers on how these types of experiments were conducted.I can only say go into it with a honest attitude and pay close attention to what they say. You can usually back out at almost any time up to the point that they actually started the project. Good luck!
Depends on the study. They have to get approval for their methods before administering to subjects. But, as someone that has rented his body for science, I would only do them for meds that have been on the market forever and have a great safety profile. I only did them for studies on generic equilivalents to trade name products that had recently lost their patents. The drugs were well known to me. All they were doing was making sure the generic was absorbed, distributed and excreted like the tradename.
Of course it's not safe. If it was safe why would they want volunteers.
What to exspect at a clinic is over worked under paid and and no it isnt safe or it wouldnt say paid volunteer . Every Volunteer work Ive ever did did not include pay.

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