Anyone participated in clinical trials?

DrFluffy

Indeed, but it might also tell you something about inherant risks...

Adverse reactions do not need to be as kick !!!! as those seen at Northwick park to lay you off uni for long enough not to pass a firm. Unless you do not care if your doctor has never done any X, Y or Z speciality because they had a more or less self-inflicted illness...

Karnam

ive done psychological trials, all v safe. scan the brain, donate some blood, fill out some questionnaires. not brill money (certainly nowhere near £900!!) but not too bad and without the uncertainty of going gaga. plus i have a scan of my brain!

irishwench69

DrFluffy wrote:

Indeed, but it might also tell you something about inherant risks...

Adverse reactions do not need to be as kick !!!! as those seen at Northwick park to lay you off uni for long enough not to pass a firm. Unless you do not care if your doctor has never done any X, Y or Z speciality because they had a more or less self-inflicted illness...

I think you're being rather unfair and prejudicial to be honest, particularly given that you're training to be a doctor, and therefore I would have thought would welcome advances in medical care......

For those of you wanting more information on taking part in clinical trials, here are some links.......

https://www.trials4us.co.uk
https://www.medtrials.co.uk

The clinical trials companies need volunteers for are what are known as "Phase I" trials. These are done on healthy volunteers (i.e you lot ) to test what are known as the pharmacokinetics of a drug (i.e how the drug passes through your body, and is got rid of). They also look at the dose that is needed for a drug, either in a new drug or in a new formulation for an existing drug, like paracetamol.

Pharmaceutical companies can do these trials themselves, or they contract these parts out, to either a phase I unit or something known as a CRO (contract / clinical research organisation).
Some examples are:

Parexel (yes, as in Northwick park, yada yada yada.....): https://www.drugtrial.co.uk
Quintiles (associated with Guys unit in London): https://www.areyoutheanswer.com
Chiltern: https://www.chiltern.com/Trials.asp

These companies do parts of the drug development process for a company that is either too small or is not specialised in this particular part of trials, so it passes it to someone who knows!

Anyway, hope this helps some of you. Let me know if you have any questions!

(Before you ask, I'm a Pharmacologist and work in clinical research, specifically safety, hence knowing about this :cool: :A )

IW x

beachlou

The one I go to is:

http://www.volunteer-research.com/index.asp

Most I have got is £1200, least is £500. I only do trials for drugs that are already on the market (mainly paracetomol and ibuprofen) and not for ones that are for cancer etc (personal choice). I personally think it it a great way to earn money, esp as a student. Plus you get a full on medical-can't be too bad.

DrFluffy

I do welcome them, but they are not a cash cow, and should not be treated as such...

And phase 1 trials are the most risky...

Tustastic

DrFluffy wrote:

Indeed, but it might also tell you something about inherant risks...

Adverse reactions do not need to be as kick !!!! as those seen at Northwick park to lay you off uni for long enough not to pass a firm. Unless you do not care if your doctor has never done any X, Y or Z speciality because they had a more or less self-inflicted illness...

I think it's understandable for education institutions to want the students to avoid taking part in anything that might make them miss part of the course. When I worked in the NHS in central London, we were asked nicely but firmly not to take part in Phase 1 clinical trials as there weren't enough of us anyway and we could do more for patient care by *erm* turning up and doing it than taking part in a trial.
Probably worth avoiding if you are self employed too.

As I no longer fall into any of those categories, I've put my name down at Guy's

Impet_Limpet

I'd love to take part in one I registered on a few sites when I was out of work but never heard anything back.


off topic but...
irishwench69 - are bronchodilators an agonist or antagonists?

irishwench69

Martine1081 wrote:

off topic but...
irishwench69 - are bronchodilators an agonist or antagonists?

They are β2 agonists.....or more precisely are β2 mimetics, acting on β2 (adrenic) receptors

There are three different subtypes of β cell receptor agonists, and they occur in different tissue types, meaning they lead to different effects / responses:

β1 receptors are located primarily in cardiac muscle
β2 receptors in tracheal and skeletal muscle
β3 receptors in brown adipose (fat) tissue

Can I ask why you want to know? Are you an asthmatic.....or just curious? :rotfl:

HTH!

IW x

Zaarin

Personally, I would advise anyone never to take part in clinical trials that involve testing new drugs. For example, someone I know was involved in one for a new chemotherapy drug, and was left with serious intermittent problems with depression (which the senior consultant involved admits was due to the drug); she has never been in any way compensated and it has ruined perhaps 1/3 to 1/4 of her life for the last 6 years. She once came very close to suicide. Think twice.

Impet_Limpet

irishwench69 wrote:

Can I ask why you want to know? Are you an asthmatic.....or just curious? :rotfl:

HTH!

IW x

I am doing a first year module and 1 semester of it is pharmacology, for some work we have to chose a receptor antagonist drug to write about "this may be one you are taking or interested in". . I'm asthmatic so thought I'd go through my medication.
All the ones I have picked so far have turned out to be agonist drugs! :rotfl:

I have recently started work as a Cardiographer ( I do ECGS all day long!) so I'd now like to do one related to either cardiovascular system/arrthymias/heart attacks. We have to write various things - side effects/physiological responses/role of the receptor and I'm worried I am going to choose a drug that doesn't have much scope

ACE inhibitors seem to crop up alot, so i might go down that pathway


I have a copy of BNF52 at my disposal and various other books, its choosing the drug I'm having difficulty with!!!