Medical Trials... official MoneySavingExpert.com discussion

Hermia · 6 February 2008 at 8:22PM

I got offered £1500 to do a medical trial a few years back 'cause I am asthmatic. I took one look at the booklet and said no way! There were loads of tests involved. I am not needle-phobic, but they did state that some of the tests would involve 'discomfort' (I know what doctors mean when they say something will involve 'discomfort' - the lying **********!). They were then going to make you inhale a substance that would bring on an asthma attack. Asthma attacks are very frightening indeed and not always easy to control (the last time I got rushed to A&E it took them half an hour to sort out my breathing) and you feel very rough afterwards. I just didn't want to put myself through that.

emweaver · 6 February 2008 at 8:34PM

Personally I dont think any amount of money you could earn is worth risking your health and possible your life

talana · 7 February 2008 at 12:17PM

I've taken part in a couple of trials before and would have no hesitation doing so again.

It's up to everyone to make their own INFORMED decision, weigh the risks properly and then decide.

As for not risking your life and your health, we do so every day.
Do you drink alcohol? (risking life and health)
Do you smoke? (ditto)
Do you fly places? (ditto, planes occasionally crash)
Do you drive a car? (ditto)

Weigh the risks of drug trials against these everyday things, and see how they compare. Many people quote the North Park fiasco of course, but how many also quote the hundreds, if not thousands, of trials every year that are completed without safety problems?

Fliss_Harper · 7 February 2008 at 12:30PM

talana wrote: »

I've taken part in a couple of trials before and would have no hesitation doing so again.

It's up to everyone to make their own INFORMED decision, weigh the risks properly and then decide.

As for not risking your life and your health, we do so every day.
Do you drink alcohol? (risking life and health)
Do you smoke? (ditto)
Do you fly places? (ditto, planes occasionally crash)
Do you drive a car? (ditto)

Weigh the risks of drug trials against these everyday things, and see how they compare. Many people quote the North Park fiasco of course, but how many also quote the hundreds, if not thousands, of trials every year that are completed without safety problems?

I agree with you, I was about to say that, but you hit the nail on the head.

burf16 · 7 February 2008 at 2:35PM

I agree as well. Weight up the risks to what the benefit is going to be. All medicines have to go through medical trials. Someone is going to have to do it.

leftfield20 · 7 February 2008 at 2:45PM

Personally I dont think any amount of money you could earn is worth risking your health and possible your life

I know what you mean but for my mind it is no more risky than eating fast or processed food nowadsya what with all the trans-fats etc.

The list of tests i've had to do is:
Give blood, Have an ECG, Blood pressure, wear a heart monitor for 4 hours and collect all my pee into a jar. Must dash now, it's lunch time!

p.s. also, you might be given a placebo not the active drug itself.

indierocker85 · 7 February 2008 at 3:07PM

Couple of friends used to do this to handle student expenses :mad: To me it wouldn't just be the public trial that went wrong that would put me off, but nobody knows the long term effects of said drugs etc. You really don't know what you are doing to or putting into your body. Big no no in my eye I'm afraid.

talana · 7 February 2008 at 4:37PM

but nobody knows the long term effects of said drugs etc.

OK, fair point perhaps. But isn't that then an argument for more or at least longer-term medical trials? That would be the only way to investigate long-term effects.

And as burf16 has mentioned, all medicines that you see in use at a hospital or that you buy at a pharmacy these days have had to go through this trial process. It HAS to be done and therefore someone has to volunteer to do it.

What's the alternative? Dispose of healthy volunteer trials and give medicines directly to patients with no prior testing?

leftfield20 · 8 February 2008 at 2:30PM

The other advantage of this is that someone you know or love could suffer from a disease or afflication. If your partner had cancer, wouldn't you feel great in the knowledge that you had potentially helped to bring an anti-cancer drug to the market? Or parkinsons, alzheimers, rheumatoid arthritis etc etc this list goes on.
Obviously the main reason is for the money, but there are other altruistic (sp?) reasons to it. It makes me kinda warm and fuzzy instead (since one of my relatives does suffer from rheumatism, and the drug i'm testing is a pain relief drug for that.

Fliss_Harper · 8 February 2008 at 3:10PM

I don't think we can start talking about long term effects because who knows what the products we use do to us over a long term basis. Mobile phones, constant use of electronic devices? These might turn out to affect us.
What is the difference? At least these are truthfully saying they are tests.

Medical Trials... official MoneySavingExpert.com discussion

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