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What would you do?

S

smidge

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,761
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Hey there!

I am in a bit of a dilemna and wondered what you would do! At the weekend, I received a letter asking if I'd be willing to take part in a trial of a new insulin being developed by Eli Lilly.

About 1100 people will take part and some will be given the new (basal) insulin while others are given one of the established insulins (insulin glargine). Participants won't know what they have been given. Participants will take the insulin with a syringe (not pen) and will also take insulin lispro at meal times. The trial lasts just over a year and involves 20 visits to the hospital for monitoring and testing over this period.

Now, my dilemna. If people do not take part in these trials, no new treatments will ever come to market. However, to take part, I might have to sacrifice my current good control, lose control of my choices and knowledge of which insulins I'm taking, risk medicine that up to March 2011 had only been tried on a handful of people (50 non-diabetics, 124 Type 1s and 245 Type 2s) and potentially risk side-effects that could mess my control up permanently e.g forming anti-bodies to the new insulin. Oh, and did I mention you have to use a syringe? :lol:

So, my question: What would you do?

Smidge
 
No I wouldn't if there was a risk of losing good control which may lead to possible complications in the future-you only get one life at the end of the day and it AND as good health as humanly possible we can achieve is priceless!
However,I DO understand what you're saying regarding these trials and development of future meds and treatments! Gee whizz!! Why can't life be straightforward without conflict eh? :crazy:


P.s That's only what I'd do if that was me in that position,I don't know if that's morally bad how I feel or not. :|
 
If they are going to pay you well, I would think about it....If not tell them to sling their hook as they will make millions
 
They probably sent out 50,000 letters knowing that only a small percentage will respond. Personally I wouldn't take part for the reasons you gave, and I know I wouldn't be throwing a spanner in the works ;)
 
No I wouldn't take part for the same reasons you have given, like everyone else I appreciate they need people to take in these trials but having had diabetic retinopathy problems in the past I couldn't take the risk.

Going back to using an syringe for a year wouldn't bother me as this is where I stared off from.
 
I understand your reservations. However when looking at trial outcomes patients in trials such as this all do very well partly due to the intensive monitoring and support that they get while part of a trial. Any clinical trial has to be ethical ie no participants should be worse off than before and there is a good chance of being better off. eg, no one would be allowed to run a trial where one group of people got insulin and the other group got no insulin because that would cause direct harm to the ones not getting insulin.
 
I understand your reservations. However when looking at trial outcomes patients in trials such as this all do very well partly due to the intensive monitoring and support that they get while part of a trial. Any clinical trial has to be ethical ie no participants should be worse off than before and there is a good chance of being better off. eg, no one would be allowed to run a trial where one group of people got insulin and the other group got no insulin because that would cause direct harm to the ones not getting insulin.
 
If you agreed to take part, and then your control became very bad as a result, would you have the option to leave the trial or are you committed for a year? I can understand your dilemma and if it were me I'd have to think long and hard about it and quite possibly would decline taking part. It's a big committment and a lot to ask of someone who is happy with how their diabetes is currently being managed. Don't feel bad if you say no as it's your body and ultimately the decision lies with you, nothing wrong and quite understandable in deciding that it's not something you want to be involved in.
 
SophiaW said:
If you agreed to take part, and then your control became very bad as a result, would you have the option to leave the trial or are you committed for a year?
Click to expand...


I really couldn't imagine that they'd have a clause in the contract saying that you couldn't leave even if your control deteriorated.
 
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