Has anyone done a clinical trial? I have RA and found an interesting clinical trial for an injectable medication and the pay is $950. If the medication helps me that'd be awesome, if not, I still have the money. Any one have an experience good or bad to share? I'm trying to find creative ways to fund a Disney vacation
I'm a clinical trials monitor (I work for the drug companies to make sure that the trials are being conducted correctly and that they are aware of any problems/adverse events/protocol deviations that the subjects may have) so I may be able to help you some.
First, with a disease like RA, I'd make sure that you are going to receive some medication. Most studies are conducted with 2 groups, the experimental group and the control group. Sometimes the control group is on placebo medication so they aren't receiving any actual medication. They will disclose the possibility of this in the informed consent. With your disease, you're probably going to need to be treated with something.
Second, assuming there are two treatment groups (experimental and control), see if the office has experience with the control. Most drug trials use the FDA's version of the "industry standard" which may be a very outdated medication that the office doesn't use anymore and has since used something with better/less side effects.
Third, are you just taking the medication and reporting side effects or do you need to undergo any additional procedures that you wouldn't normally do and are you comfortable with this? If the study requires you to get an x-ray/ultrasound/MRI every 2 weeks to monitor you then you need to decide if this is something you are willing to do. I've only done one RA trial, but using for example if you are only on oral medication and the study requires IV treatment, are you prepared for the extra time this is going to take?
Fourth, what is the duration of the trial? Most drug trials are quick, but if enrollment is slow do you need to continue visits until the last subject enrolled has reached a certain point or are you done after a certain number of treatments? Again, think of what your time is worth.
As the previous poster said, please be sure to read the consent thoroughly and ask questions! It's amazing how people just sign the consents in less than 5 minutes without being aware of their role in the study!
HTH and good luck. My dad and former SIL both have RA and I know it's hard for them.
