Understanding Clinical Trials
Clinical trials are research studies that involve patients or healthy people and are designed to evaluate new treatments. They aim to test whether different treatments are safe and how well they work.
They aim to find the best ways to
prevent disease and reduce the number of people who become ill,
treat illness to improve survival or increase the number of people cured,
improve the quality of life for people living with illness, including reducing symptoms of disease or the side effects of other treatments, and
diagnose diseases and health problems.
Clinical trials cover a broad range of several types of research. For example, trials are often used to test new medicines or vaccines but can also be used to look at new combinations of existing medicines. They can also be used to test whether giving a treatment in a different way will make it more effective or reduce any side effects. Some trials are designed to try out ways to prevent a particular disease in people who have never had the disease or to prevent a disease from returning. The treatments being evaluated in these types of studies can include vaccines but may also involve drugs or dietary supplements such as vitamins and minerals.
Clinical trials are not always about testing medicines. They can be used to test “interventions” aimed at modifying a person’s behavior or lifestyle. This could include an educational program designed to improve a person’s understanding of their medical condition and help them to manage it more effectively, or it could be a psychological treatment, such as the use of cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of anxiety or depression.