Consider Participating in a Clinical Trial that Tests a New Treatment for Parkinson's Disease

Scientific evaluations of the effectiveness and safety of potential treatments for medical disorders like Parkinson’s disease are called clinical trials. Without clinical trials of new drugs and new treatments for PD a cure for PD would never materialize—nor would any advances be made in treatment of all of the various afflictions PD imposes on us. It is therefore in the interest of all persons with PD to have lots of clinical trials of new PD treatments going on all the time. The problem is that to perform a clinical trial of a new treatment you need to have lots of volunteer patients with PD participating in the trial. Although exact figures are hard to come by most PD advocates say that a mere 1% of the population of persons with PD actually participate in clinical trials. Now this is unfortunate for two reasons: first, as just mentioned you can’t develop new treatments for PD symptoms without clinical trials; second, participation in a clinical trial may actually help you individually because you get the new drug or new therapy long before it goes to market and becomes available more generally. Thus, participation in clinical trials is to be encouraged it seems to me. Of course, you need always speak to your doctor and your family before volunteering in any study. To learn more about clinical trials for PD treatments check out the following Web sites: www.PDtrials.org and www.clinicaltrials.gov.

_{Source: www.PDtrials.org}