Help! Should I enter a clinical study for migrianes?

Having severe migraines everyday and missing school.. not good. A doctor asked if i wanted to be in a clinical study.. should I do it? Or will it have too many side affects?

Help!


-Kristen

I'd ask for more information, such as what stage this medication trial is in, what type is it, and what they know about it. If you are that desperate sort of point where you have tried everything and haven't found relief, then maybe you'd want to go for it. Its tough to make a decision without enough information, and only you can really decide whether it is the right choice for you.

Kristen,

That is a choice for you and your parents to make. No one can answer your questions - frankly there is no answer. It depends on what the clinical study involves. If it's a drug study (which I'm guessing it is)...well there is a chance you would never receive the drug but something called a placebo (does absolutely nothing) but if you did receive the drug - well they will be looking for side-effects so the possibility is yes that there will be and they could be severe. There is also the chance that the drug will not help but there is a chance that it could help. There is a chance that the drug would help and have tolerable side effects...this is the nature of a clinical study. The researchers want to see what the response to a drug will be.

You, your parents and your doctor will need to sit down and discuss if this is the right way to go.

Becky

Keep in mind, it must be stinky to be on the placebo end. They also can control some aspects of what other medications you can take so I'd find out EVERYTHING about the study and research it very well before signing up for it.

Good advice from everyone. Check into the study carefully. If it is a drug study they often want to control what other meds you can use, you have a chance of being in the control group (placebo), sometimes they are a lot of work ie checklists, surveys, phone interviews, extra appts.

Also there is one study in Canada currently that wants you off all preventatives (looking at PFO) and at the end even if you have the PFO they don't guarantee you the surgery anyways. I find some of these studies are better for the docs and research than maybe for the patients current health situation.

I understand that without research there can be no medical gains made but there are times in our lives when we just cant physically afford to be guinea pigs (for lack of a better word)

Jo

As everyone else said, find out more. If it's a drug trial, there will be potential side effects. They usually don't tell you what they are in advance because that's something they're investigating when they do trials.

There are lots of clinical trials open, but there are very few for people with daily Migraine. There are also very few for people who don't have several Migraines a month.

Before you enroll in a study, they will give you SOME information about it. They have to in order for you to consent to be part of it. Once you find out what it is, you can find basic information such as how many places they're conducting the trial at ClinicalTrials.gov. If you want to find the trial there easily, ask your doctor for the ClinicalTrials.gov trial identifier number.

Good luck!
Teri