For My Tummy

Clinical Trials for IBS-C and IBS-D Investigational Drugs

There is a nationwide progams of clinical trials for investigational drugs to treat Irritable Bowel Syndrome. As far as I know, they are unrelated studies. Contact information for the IBS-D Study is via website, and you get to choose a (fairly) nearby location. Here is the website.

For the IBS-C study, there is a phone number to call, 1-866-55STUDY. The letters instead of numbers irritate me; in numbers, it’s 1-866-557-8839. You will reach an operator probably located in Chicago, who will ask where you are, and give you some alternative sites and the distance from your zip code. The IBS-C study is also nationwide. If you decide to call and go ahead with the interview, you will be asked questions about symptoms, such as weeks with fewer than 3 bowel movements.

The way that clinical trials work is to divide study participants into those who get the IBS medicine they are trying out, and those who get a dummy pill or capsule or powder that looks the same. The person who gives it to you to take home with you doesn’t know whether it’s the real IBS medicine or the fake IBS medicine. What do you get out of it, if there’s a fifty-fifty chance you get the fake medicine? Well, on the other hand, there’s a fifity-fifty chance you get the real medicine.

What I think will be a tremendous psychological benefit for any study participant is that you will get to talk to someone who is interested in your IBS symptoms, and how it feels to be you with IBS. That person has no particular agenda about how you *should* feel. S/he just wants to know what is and what’s real. That can be an enormous boost–sure, it defines you according to the functioning of your large intestine (colon), but then we knew that already. The people running the drug trials *believe* you have IBS. Amazing!

July 9th, 2007 Posted by tummyblogger | Medical, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS-C, IBS-D | one comment