Question about helping...

[whatdidIdo]

I am thinking about participating in trials (I am hiv negative). I want to know, what type of side effects woudl I have ..I mean would I be in danger of my losing my lifeetcc...?

[HIVworker]

In any clinical trial there is that danger. However, drugs have been tested in animals before you take it and there is never any reason to think they will kill you. There have been stories of people getting very sick, but on the most part the drugs have been tested in two different animal species and in a slew of in vitro biochemical assays that are good markers for known toxicity.

Nobody knows what side effects you will have - that's the point of giving them to people in phase I studies who are healthy. They in part want to see if there are any. You should request all the data on any compound you take and make sure you understand it. It is a critical part of drug discovery and you would be playing a major role in HIV research should you choose to help.

R

[angelofdreams]

If you are affraid of stepping into a clinical trial then read this.
In london about 4 months ago a clinical trial went horribly wrong with desatrous effects, some of the patienats are still in severe pain every day.
look it up online, you will find it.
this is a minority but it happens and has happened before, ok, you make some nice money  out of it but is it worth damaging your health even more?
i find that when you wanna go and join something like this yu enrole yourself with a reputed centre that specialises in these trials and NOT a one day stint

[HIVworker]

What do you mean one-day stints? That clinical trial was the one I was talking about regarding when things go wrong, but doesn't represent the norm. Are you suggesting that Parexel are fly-by-night?

R

[ScienceGuy25]

I don't think he's suggesting that HIV Worker - as you and I both know they are a major company in clinical trial testing.  Still, with all there experience don't you wonder why they conducted the trial in such a stupid manner?

For being a world leader Parexel made some very juvenille errors:

1) When you have 4 subjects for healthy subjects for a clinical trial - you start with one subject, wait at minimum a couple of hours to rule out any allergic/anaphylactic reaction.  Sounds cruel to say but this way if there is an ill response you limit it to one subject, not your whole population. There are reports they only waited 2 minutes between patients.

2) As far as I understand it they initially gave physiologic doses of antibody rather than giving very very small doses and slowly working their way up.

Some of these "reports" are anectodal so we'll see if they all hold true but it seems they made some critical errors.

Still it's important to remember that there are lots of clinical trials going on around the country and very few result in this kind of serious reaction.  If you decide to participate in one, make sure you're aware of all the potential risks! Make them explain it to you in plain - non-science jargon english.  Also should something go wrong and you need treatment, find out who's footing the bill for that.  Ethically many organizations would pay for your treatment, but legally they do not usually have to.  That means you could be participating in a trial, get sick and have to pay your own medical costs.  In general though I think the majority of trials are pretty good and everything is done to protect patient safety. The one's i've been in was nothing more than a sore arm and geting blood drawn (bird flu vaccine trial).

Good luck!

[Charlie]

Original newspaper article about the disastrous drug trial....


When drug trials go horribly wrong - By Elisabeth Rosenthal International Herald Tribune - SUNDAY APRIL 9 2006


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