A trial is a very personal thing, I think. Erm some people would be quite positive like me, and would think, “Yeah, it’s going to be good for me, it’s going to be good for others.” Other people might be a bit dubious whether to go into that sort of thing. But, I think if you sit back and think about it, that medicine has made such a progress over the years, and it’s only because the likes of people doing clinical trials, drug trials…you’ve got to find these results from somebody, and the only way they can do it is to do these trials, so it can only be for the good of yourself and for other people.
Merilyn talks about why people like to take part in medical research studies.
I think anyone being asked to take part in a trial should ask some quite penetrating questions. I mean, I think first of all they should approach it in a positive state of mind that on the whole we patients would like to help science wherever at all possible. Doctors are trying to provide er better proof, better evidence, better treatments, and er I think it’s the least the patient can do is to help as much as they possibly can. But in the end you have to look at the particular trial very, very carefully. And I think really you need, it’s a good idea to get a second opinion from somewhere else.
Polly thinks patients should want to help health care professionals and researchers get the best evidence to be able to provide treatments.
Well, all you can say is you’re doing your best for, to help other people and mankind, and we won’t get anywhere if nobody volunteers for anything. You know you’re in good hands, whoever’s looking after you will make sure that nothing – well, hopefully [laughs] nothing too awful happens to you. And it may give you some benefits. At least you know in your mind you’ve done something to help people. And if there aren’t that many of you with the illness etcetera it’s very important you volunteer. Yeah.
Sarah feels that doing your best to help others is important, especially if there are not many of you with that particular medical condition.
Well, I mean I think it’s a bonus if you benefit yourself, but I, I think realistically most research is about future. [Um] And it may be future a year ahead or it may be, you know, much longer term. You may be only contributing to one small element of what’s sort of actually a much bigger picture. [Um] But I, I think that you shouldn’t go into research necessarily thinking, ‘I’m going to get some great benefits out of this.’ I mean, there may be other, there may be benefits. There may be things like extra monitoring, or more appointments, or you might, you might get some sort of better feel about treatment [um] because of those aspects. But I don’t think I would go in thinking, ‘If I go into this research it’s going to cure my symptoms.’ [Laughs] Because that’s… probably not… not going to happen overnight, but [er] hey, you never know. [Laughs]
Gill thinks that there may be many benefits for someone taking part in a medical study, such as extra monitoring and more appointments.