Are Clinical Trials Safe?

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Are Clinical Trials Safe? Rely on DoNotPay To Learn Everything About Clinical Trials!

When you decide to participate in clinical trials, the first question you’ll ask is if being a part of a clinical trial is safe. Clinical trials come with certain risks, but they have lots of benefits as well. You should talk to your doctor before you apply for any study, so they can help you decide whether the benefits outweigh the risks.

No matter if you’re looking to join paid clinical trials for healthy volunteers or you need a new way of dealing with your condition, our app is here to help you

How Safe Is Each Phase of Clinical Trials?

There are four clinical trial phases, and the first two come with the greatest risks. Phases one and two are the early phases, and they are conducted on a small number of people. The third and fourth phases are done after the safety and effectiveness are established. The last two phases exist because researchers need additional details about how the new medication works.

Phase I of Clinical Trials

Before a clinical trial starts, the new medication is tested on animals and in labs. Preclinical testing is a long process that can go on for up to a few years. After the preclinical testing, the scientists start the first phase.

Phase one carries the greatest risks, which is why it’s tested on a small number of people—usually between 20 and 80 healthy volunteers. This is the first time that scientists give new drugs to human subjects, and the side effects can’t be predicted. Phase I is usually paid because of the risks it involves.

Phase II of Clinical Trials

The second phase involves people with the disease or condition that the medication is being tested for, and it comes with fewer risks than the first one. Scientists conduct it to determine the efficacy of the drug. The number of people in this phase is several hundred.

Phase III of Clinical Trials

Phase three begins once the safety and effectiveness of the new drug have been established. During this phase, researchers aim to collect additional data, which is why this phase involves up to 3,000 thousand participants. It is the most complicated to plan out, but it carries a lower risk than the previous two.

Phase IV of Clinical Trials

The fourth phase starts with the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval. It is conducted on thousands of participants, and it comes with the lowest risk. At this point, your doctor may prescribe you the new medication because it needs to be tested for safety and effectiveness in a greater number of people and in the long run.

What Are the Potential Discomforts and Dangers of Clinical Trials?

The main risks of clinical trials are:

  • Side effects of the drug might be too severe
  • New treatment might not work for you
  • Health insurance might not cover the cost of the clinical trial

Clinical trials also come with some inconveniences, such as:

  • Check-ups and doctor visitations that might take up more time than you’re used to
  • The methods of drug distribution might be uncomfortable

The Benefits of Clinical Trials

People can be prejudiced against clinical trials because they use human beings as subjects. Clinical trials, however, come with an array of benefits. Sometimes, medical research is the only hope for someone with a terminal condition.

The benefits that could potentially outweigh the risks are:

  • Getting good treatment that isn’t available to the general public yet
  • Getting better and more frequent check-ups from healthcare professionals
  • Helping someone get better
  • Contributing to science and the advancement of medicine

How Can You Be Guaranteed Clinical Trial Safety?

The main dangers of clinical trials come with the unknown, and sometimes research teams' incompetence can have devastating consequences.

An example of a clinical trial going wrong is the one conducted by Parexel. The test subjects had a severe reaction to the new medication for leukemia and ended up with life-long consequences.

This only serves to prove that you need to be super careful when applying for clinical trials. Before enrolling in one, find out if it is approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB ensures that your safety and rights are protected.

Every clinical trial must have a protocol—a plan that contains information about:

  • Purpose and goal of the medical study
  • Length of the clinical trial
  • Number of participants
  • Eligibility criteria
  • Predetermined information that needs to be collected
  • Schedule of the tests, methods, medication, and dose

If you meet the criteria for a clinical trial, the research team will take you through an informed consent process that will inform you about your rights, safety, and the procedure you’ll go through. You’ll be required to sign the informed consent form. This isn’t a contract, though, so you can feel free to leave at any time.

How To Find Safe Clinical Trials With DoNotPay

DoNotPay is a platform that will find clinical trials for you. You can set your filters according to:

  • Your location
  • Estimated compensation
  • Personal preferences

With our huge clinical trials database, we will help you find the highest-paid clinical trials near you. You also have the option to specify whether you want only remote or observational studies and whether you’re pregnant or breastfeeding.

To find clinical trials near you, create an account on DoNotPay in any , and follow these steps:

  1. Select the Clinical Trials category
  2. Click on Get Started
  3. Set the filters
  4. Choose a study that sounds interesting and tap on View Study
  5. Click on Contact Now

DoNotPay will send an email to the research team and improve your chances of enrollment. The good news about our app is that we don’t take cuts—anything you earn from your participation is 100% yours.

You can also use DoNotPay to search for medical surveys and paid psychological studies. We constantly upload new ones.

DoNotPay enables you to sign up for an upgrade to receive notifications whenever a new trial is posted. Using this handy feature, you can be up to date and have the advantage of an early application. You can bookmark the clinical trials you’re interested in, which is useful when a study isn’t recruiting yet.

Other Websites for Safe Clinical Trials Search

To find the safest clinical trials, your best option is to search for them on official websites. These are some of them:

Official WebsiteSteps To Find Clinical Trials

CenterWatch

  1. Hover over Patient Resources
  2. Select Clinical Trials
  3. Type in your location and condition
  4. Select Search

ClinicalTrials.gov

  1. Tap on Find Studies
  2. Select New Search in the drop-down menu
  3. Type in the requested information
  4. Click on Search

NIH Clinical Center

  1. Click on Search the Studies
  2. Enter your condition and anything else that would narrow down your search
  3. Select Search

Be on the Safe Side—Use DoNotPay for Other Obstacles

DoNotPay can help you find a variety of clinical trials, such as cancer, depression, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and many more. Finding clinical trials is not all our app can do, though.

We can assist you with anything from getting help for cancer patients to pay bills to canceling online pharmacies like Walgreens, CVS CarePass, and Express Scripts.

Open DoNotPay in your and see what else we can offer you.

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