Many pharmaceutical companies conduct drug testing, they regularly advertise in papers. More often than not they test drugs which are already on the market, moreover, some of those drugs could have been on the market for quite some time, but the latest "version" has some new "filler". The purpose of those studies is to determine bioavailability of a drug, in other words, how its blood concentration changes with time.
I visited one pharmaceutical company, which conducts such tests; they gave me an abstract to read: you arrive there between 6 and 8 p.m. on Friday, sleep on their premises, on Saturday morning you take a pill and after that they start taking blood samples, twenty altogether over a course of twelve hours. Then you repeat it the Friday next week, forty blood samples altogether, for a total of just over 300 cubic centimeters or milliliters. Reimbursement was 600 Canadian dollars (about 400 US at that time; all numbers refer to the years 1999-2000)
This was unacceptable, but I still decided to do a physical, in case another study would be more attractive. The nurse who was taking blood, had such poor manual dexterity, that she was unable to maintain the needle within the lumen of the vein, the needle was pulling the vein up. As a result of that, enough blood escaped underneath the skin and a large bruise was left there. Imagine having this done to you several dozen times!
I have not passed the medical because of a low red blood cell count (anemia), this was the result of a trick I did to expand the volume of blood plasma; there is no need to do such things before the medical.
Overall, the medical turned out to be a total waste, as the other parts of blood tests were only good for thirty days! The reason for that is obvious - these places deal with people who are not "gainfully employed", and it is assumed that their lifestyle is "risky", to put it mildly, and that is why they are likely to get exposed to hepatitis or AIDS.
But even though I have not been taking part in any such study, I have gathered enough information to be able to give a good overview for those who may be interested.
(I was calling those places whenever I see an ad in a paper).
A study where you stay on company premises twice for 24 hrs each time, with one week between visits and have blood taken 40 (FORTY) times altogether, pays 600 Canadian dollars. The details and amount may vary somewhat from place to place, but this should give you an idea, as to how much you can expect to be paid.
A study where you stay on premises twice for about 24 hrs and come there every morning over the period of five - six days after each session, ten - twelve times total, to have blood taken (about 450 ml total), pays 1500 Canadian.
A similar study, where you spend 24 to 36 hrs on premises, and after that come there early in the morning to have blood taken for 4 or 5 times, repeating that for the next 4 weeks, with the total amount taken of about 870 milliliters; would pay 2000 dollars. The first one is obviously better, you get more money per unit of blood.
Unless you are over six feet with a large frame, drawing 450 milliliters of blood over two or three weeks would be VERY DISCOMFORTING.
870 milliliters over three or four weeks can make you EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE!
Such things are definitely not suitable for women, as most women are marginally anemic. It is also possible that such a jolt to your organism may raise your chances of getting a neoplastic disease (cancer). This happens because the body has to produce more blood cells to replace the lost ones and the likelihood of an error while building the DNA is higher under those circumstances. The likelihood of a DNA error would be much higher with inadequate nutrition, inadequate intake of vitamins and minerals.
In addition to drawing substantial amounts of blood, there is also pain and hazards of multiple venipunctures. After all, even one venipuncture per day for fourteen days in a row, would mean fourteen large-bore needles stuck into your vein! Twenty venipunctures over twelve hours can mess up your veins pretty bad!
It is hard to imagine that a normal person, unless he is in a desperate financial situation, would want anything like that!
Another thing to keep in mind is that in some studies the drug bioavailability is studied UNDER THE FASTING CONDITIONS, you have your evening meal, there is no breakfast and your first meal of the day is lunch! (some sixteen hours without food since the last meal the evening before!)
In some studies the blood samples are being taken over a course of twelve hours, from morning to evening; I would imagine the people in those are allowed to at least have breakfast, otherwise it would be TWENTY FOUR HOURS WITHOUT FOOD.
I do not know about restrictions of fluids, I forgot to ask the person who was telling me about this. I would imagine you are allowed fluids during the night, the fluid intake is probably cut off in the morning, but this is only my guess.
Sixteen hours without water can produce a kidney failure and if a person takes the matters to court, those places can be nailed with a huge financial settlement. Anybody even with a minimal exposure to the hospital procedures cannot be ignorant of the fact that if a urinary output drops to 20 ml per hour, it is a major emergency on a hospital floor, a doctor has to be notified immediately, since a patient can be steps away from a kidney failure.
Coming back to the realities of taking substantial amounts of blood for tests, the volume of blood plasma drops under the conditions of restricted fluid intake and you are losing more red blood cells per each unit of blood drawn. Because of that, even if they take "only" 150 milliliters over twelve hours, it may well be equivalent to more than 200 when you are well hydrated.
The places, which run those programs, often compare the blood drawn during their studies to an amount drawn for blood donations; those comparisons are largely meaningless, since you lose more red blood cells when you are dehydrated, and that's what happens when you have your water intake restricted.
Overall, the greatest risk here is probably from the effects of dehydration, whatever "extra" blood cells you lose, you can restore them in a few weeks, but severe dehydration can result in kidney stones and even kidney failure, as kidney tubules develop irreversible damage.
Kidneys do not give noticeable symptoms, when their physiological capacity diminishes as a result of some pathological developments; you only begin to feel it when the physiological capacity of kidneys went down to the last ten percent. Dehydration produces very serious pathological processes, which can seriously damage the kidneys, that is why it pays to be very careful with these organs and not to abuse them through unhealthy lifestyle.
Coming back to evaluating those drug testing programs, should you decide to call one of those places, here is the list of questions to ask them (make sure you record their answers:)
How much the study pays?
How many times you would have to stay on their premises?
how many days and hours total?
how many times you have to visit them (on some studies you have to visit them to have blood taken without having to sleep there);
how much of the drug you have to take total and how much per visit?
At what time of the day the first dose is administered?
Is the drug taken by mouth or is it injected?
Is the water intake restricted?
Can you bring your own water?
Are the visits to the washroom restricted? If they say "Yes", it would then be natural to ask if they are supervised. (Just imagine having someone standing by the toilet, watching you doing it!)
How many blood samples will be taken? how much blood total? over what period of time?
Is bioavailability studied under fasting conditions? how much blood is taken during a medical examination?
Here you have to be very persistent, demand to know how much blood exactly. The phones are answered by people who have no medical education, plus they may well be under instructions to keep people in the dark by giving meaningless or evasive answers. Be prepared that they would be trying to brush you aside, and rest assured that they are well-drilled in that!
For example, you may get an answer - "We are testing for hepatitis and AIDS." If you would assume that this means two vials, you could be wrong, as it could well mean FIVE! This is because they will be testing for two types of hepatitis, plus for street drugs, possibly for nicotine, as well, or whatever you test for to screen out smokers, if those are not allowed into the program.
By the time the needle is in your vein, it is too late to ask questions! The person you are dealing with during the test, would make a surprised face and say - "But we also have to test if you are drug-free, Sir! We have no way of knowing what kind of people come here, unless we test them!"
Ask them for how long the results of the blood test are valid. Usually it is thirty days; because of that it is pointless to go there for a medical if you may not be available for a study within that period of time.
Ask them if people are allowed to wear their own clothes; this is important for two reasons; first, it is demeaning enough to be a guinea pig; putting on the agency's uniform would make you feel even worse. Another side of this is a simple fact that those places are air-conditioned and it will be very cold in those thin hospital scrubs.
Some companies require that all test participants put on a "uniform", which is ordinary hospital scrubs. That acquaintance who went through a few such tests, told me that people huddle in blankets to keep warm, and they look utterly miserable.
You can get a very serious hypothermia after spending a day in an air-conditioned environment in paper-thin garments! And it could even be twenty four and even thirty six hours! You can get a very bad cold!
Together with a reduced food and water intake, it can mean a very serious jolt to your organism!
On top of that, when you are cold, your peripheral blood vessels constrict. This means a greater tissue damage with every venipuncture, after all, it is a large-bore needle that is used to take blood! The volume of blood plasma is also going to shrink, both from the effects of fasting, restricted water intake (possibly SEVERELY RESTRICTED) and the cold temperatures. This means you would be losing a greater amount of blood cells with every unit of blood drawn.
And overall, a jolt to your organism caused by dehydration, hypothermia and fasting can result in various health complications, even as severe as diabetes!
Oleg Chmelev is the webmaster of http://tuneMind.net That site deals with the issues of intellectual performance, as well as other things.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Oleg_F_Chmelev
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