HIV Clinical Trials

What are HIV 'clinical trials'?

Clinical trials are when doctors and researchers test various medications or even other approaches to health in a very scientific way. In a sense it's like an experiment. Doctors and researcher's want to learn if a drug works well in a person, so they conduct a clinical trial.

What are the benefits of joining an HIV clinical trial?

The benefit of joining an HIV clinical trial is that you're much more likely to have some of the best medical care for your HIV in the field. A lot of the HIV clinical trials require you to visit every three months to take blood. Therefore you're ensured to get top-notch health care for your HIV. If you don't have health insurance, sometimes the way to get health care for HIV may be through clinical trial. By joining an HIV clinical trial, you have access to not just good HIV medical care, but access to HIV information that you wouldn't ordinarily have. You have highly trained HIV medical professionals looking out for all different things that could be going on in your body. You also may have access to great HIV drugs that are being tested. But there's always a risk involved in any clinical trial. Some people think that newer HIV drugs are better drugs and that's not always the case. It's always important to be fully informed when joining an HIV clinical trial because there are risks and there are benefits.

What are the disadvantages of joining an HIV clinical trial?

There are important considerations if you're thinking about joining an HIV clinical trial. On the good side, you can have access to excellent medical care. On the bad side, the drug, treatment or approach that is being tested may not prove good for you. There's always a risk that the drug may do something bad. People sometimes think that new drugs are always better drugs, and that's not the case. I've seen people join HIV clinical trials where they've gotten bad drugs, and those bad drugs have led to problems. In some cases, people have become sick because they took a drug that wasn't right for them. With every advantage of a clinical trial, it's important to remember that there's always a risk involved as well.

Where can I learn more about HIV clinical trials?

The first step in learning more about HIV clinical trials is calling your state's local AIDS hotline. That hotline will then direct you to either organizations that specialize in providing information about HIV clinical trials, or to government agencies that can give the same information about HIV clinical trials. Usually the first step is calling the intake coordinator in an HIV clinical trial, and that person will speak to you on the phone an initially asses if a clinical trial is right for you.