Has anyone here participated in one of these for extra money, what was your experience?
Clinical Trials
linglingling on 17/10/2018 - 10:53
Comments
I've recently watched the first series of 'New Blood' and the latest series of 'Jack Irish'. I'm sure it is safer that both of those dramas suggests.
I'm registered for clinical trials and always get emails whenever there's a study coming up.
Most of them pay thousands of dollars per study, but they generally go over a few months - eg, 5 nights as an inpatient, followed by 10 subsequent visits - 1 per week, etc. The ones I usually get are not suitable for people who work full time.
I just stay registered to see what sort of drugs they're trialling. I'm getting to an age where diseases/conditions are getting common so it's useful (I think anyway) for me to keep an eye out.
I have been tempted to try one or two, but I know I snore when I sleep and since the overnight facilities are a shared room (similar to a hospital ward), I'm just conscious that I could be disturbing everyone's sleep.
I'm also very curious about people's experiences with these overnight clinical trials.
A friend of mine participated in one of these overnight inpatient trials. He got paid a few thousand for the trial and bought a new guitar.
However he explained that his heart started racing at 1 point in the trial.
He was in hospital, but still …. I question if it is really worth such risk being a guinee pig for new untested drugs, and from what I recall, it was only about 1.5 or 2 x about average wage you would earn for that couple of weeks or whatever that he spent as an inpatient drug guinea pig . He just watched tv through it.
You would have to sign wavers etc, so even if you die or get permanent damage from the trial, you probably get nothing as far as compensation for your suffering and injury.A lot of the trials don't sound so bad. I'd say that the risk of anything bad happening is quite small (although it does happen) and then when you consider that most of them also use placebos, the chances halve again.
However he explained that his heart started racing at 1 point in the trial.
Heart racing is quite a common symptom of many things such as nervousness etc. A bulging eye or swollen head would be a very different story! haha
I have seen a couple of documentaries on how some clinical trials have gone wrong, etc. It sounds quite scary, but then you consider the number of trials there are across the world and it's quite rare that we hear anything.
when you consider that most of them also use placebos
That's not the type of trial he's talking about.
Phase 3 trials is where placebos are used. Participants have the disease studied and aren't usually paid.
OP is most likely talking about Phase 1, where healthy volunteers are paid at take the active drug to look for side effects.
@onevstheworld: Yes, donga100 is right.. they do use placebos in healthy subjects too. It's outlined in the pre-trial documentation.
I've done plenty of these and would only recommend them to people on Centrelink as the payments aren't taxed and don't affect your Centrelink payments. In Australia it is illegal to "pay" someone to do a clinical trial so the most you can receive is a "reimbursement" for your time and expenses. For example, spending a full day in a hospital/test facility will only net you around $200. Most of them only require a short visit though with follow ups and you might only get $50-$100 for these.
Sounds about right, regarding what ny friend said he was paid. About $200 a day. Avaerage wage is probably about $150, so might as well work a day instead of spending a day being a drug guinea pig.
I can give it glowing reviews.
On a serious note, the scope is so wide. Some trials pay peanuts for some serious mental anguish, some pay a lot to play some reactionary game.
I did one that gave me $50 Coles/Safeway (yeah, it's been that long) gift card for 20 minutes of my time. Study was for reaction time of different age groups. I had to press left or right mouse button based on prompts on the screen.