Thoughts from a Lab Rat

Too often when I’m in the clinics I hear people say that there aren’t any studies available. Well, as the webmaster of this website, I have to disagree. The real problem is that the studies available don’t suit their interests. That’s fine. To each their own.

But let’s not forget what clinical research is all about. We Lab Rats test all drugs that are available to the consumers. Unfortunately, not every drug requires a 52 night, $10,500 study to make it to the market. But every drug is important to someone. Whether it’s the people who need to treat their diabetes to the people trying to get over their cold 24 hours quicker to the people looking for treatments to their cancers. Every drug that makes it to market requires dozens of clinical research studies. Even the many drugs that never make it to market benefit from the few studies conducted as better formulations lead to better drugs.

The beauty of clinic research is that there are so many different types and lengths of studies available to suit the interests of all walks of life.

Together, all Lab Rats make a difference!

You’ve finished the study and you find that volunteering for clinical research is all right in your book. So now you want to do another study. All clinics have a minimum wash out period of 30 days, however, sometimes you can sign up and screen for another study within that period. This is not always true and depends on two factors. 1. The clinic. Some clinics base the washout from the last does and some base it on the last participation date ie out patient. 2. The sponsor. Some drug companies will specifically request that participants have not participated in a study in the last 30 prior to signing up. So basically, Once you get out of a study and are completely done with everything, look for upcoming studies that start after your 30 days and sign up. Sometimes you won’t be able to but the clinic will usually tell you why.

It’s easy to get excited about making lots of money from a study. But don’t start spending the money until you know you’ll get it. Screening for a study doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get into it. There are many reasons that can cause you not to get into a study. Once you check into the study, there still is a chance that you may not actually get into the study. Once you take the first dose of study medication, then you are in the study.

Doing studies can be a great source of income and some people like to do as many studies as they possibly can. Every clinic has a designated ‘washout’ period in which you are not allowed to do studies. The standard is 30 days from the last dose unless otherwise specified in the informed consent. Some types of drugs may require longer washouts. In the US, there is no universal monitoring system in place due to the confidentiality of each clinic. Therefore, it is up to you to ‘police’ yourself and make sure you are obeying your washouts. There may be consequences from doing studies back to back. Drug interaction of course, is the main concern. Also, your blood supply needs replenishing and your veins need time to heal. Just Another Lab Rat! highly recommends that if you are one of those who does studies back to back without obeying the 30 washout period, that you stop doing so. You may never get caught but you may be skewing the results of subsequent studies by not having a clinically clean bill of health. Again, I cannot stress this enough, clinics and sponsors are paying you to use your clean body and for you to follow all study parameters. It’s just like buying a car from someone who knows that there is a problem with the transmission but they fail to tell you. I’m sure you would like the honest truth from the car seller. So does the clinics and the sponsors but ultimately, the people who will eventually benefit from the drug.

Nobody wants to be a backup but somebody has to be one. Every study is going to bring in a few extra subjects as backups in case one or more of the primary subjects fails to show up or pass the check-in procedures. Sometimes no backups are used and sometimes all of the backups are used. You never know. Some sponsors will not run their study unless they have a full panel, so having enough backups is a must. Even if you are a backup and don’t get used, you will usually get some money for your troubles and priority preference for your next study. Who knows, it could be a blessing in disguise and you get into a much higher paying study.