Call (310) 245-0332 to speak with a licensed insurance agent.

Call (310) 245-0332 to speak with a licensed insurance agent.

Risks and Benefits of Participation in Clinical Trials

Posted by Janice Wood, October 19, 2020

If you are struggling with an illness or chronic health condition, your doctor will use his or her best judgement to prescribe the course of treatment best geared for your situation. But what if you don’t make progress with standard drugs and treatments? You might wonder if newer innovations might be better suited to your situation, and whether you should participate in a clinical trial to find out.

What’s the risk? It’s important to remember that clinical trials are technically experiments, so the end results can be uncertain. However, most drugs and other treatments proceed through several phases of trials, often beginning with animals, so in most cases a relative degree of safety is assumed before you will be admitted to the study. It is still important to keep in mind that unexpected events can occur, even if they aren’t likely.

Also, remember that in some cases only half of study participants will receive the new drug or treatment. The other half receive a placebo (a substance with no effects, such as saline injections or a sugar pill). In these cases, you aren’t guaranteed to receive the experimental treatment, and therefore you won’t be “cured” or achieve a reduction of symptoms.

What are the benefits? The most obvious benefit of participating in a clinical trial is that you have the opportunity to receive cutting-edge treatments. You might achieve a cure, reversal of a disease, or reduction in symptoms that you were previously unable to obtain with treatments currently on the market.

By volunteering for a clinical trial, you also help science to advance. Your participation helps doctors to learn what works and what doesn’t work, so that they can offer better care to patients in your condition in the future.

Due to the intense monitoring you will receive in a clinical trial, you will benefit from highly attentive care. There are no guarantees of the outcome you want, but many patients report feeling very safe and reassured during the trial process.

If you’re interested in participating in a clinical trial, your physician is the best person to help guide you through this decision. They can explain the details of participation in greater detail and help you to decide if the potential benefits outweigh the risks for your individual situation.

Need more information?

Contact us online to learn more

Contact Us

Close Accessibility Tools
Accessibility Controls Reset
Content Adjustments
Font Size

Default

Line Height

Default

Content Scaling

Default

Highlight Titles
Highlight Links
Highlight Forms
Align Left
Align Center
Align Right
Focus Mode
Color Adjustments
Desaturate
Monochrome
Contrast

Default

Saturation

Default

Accessibility Statement

Despite our attempts to make this website accessible for everyone, there may still be some pages or sections that are not completely accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or do not have a suitable technological solution to make them accessible. Nevertheless, we are always striving to enhance our accessibility by adding, updating, improving its options and features, and incorporating new technologies.

We want to provide our users with the best experience possible, so we strive to support as many browsers and assistive technologies as possible.

If you wish to contact this website's owner, please use the contact form on the website.

Our User Interface Adjustment Options

Font adjustments - With this tool, users can modify font size, style, letter spacing, and line height for improved alignment and readability.

Color adjustments - Users can customize their color contrast profiles to light, dark, desaturated, and monochrome.

Content highlighting - Users can prioritize key elements such as links, forms, and titles.

Content focus - Users can enable focus mode to highlight the current page information based on their mouse movement.

Close