Clinical Trials
What are Clinical Trials?
We conduct a number of clinical trials. Clinical trials evaluate the safety and effectiveness of medications or other treatments. Sometimes medications are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for another use, such as epilepsy or unipolar depression, and are now being studied for use in bipolar depression, mania, rapid cycling, or relapse prevention. Clinical trials are the objective, scientific means of establishing whether one medication or treatment is better than another. Participation in a clinical trial is offered only to patients that the investigator believes may benefit from participation. However, we cannot and do not guarantee or promise that you will receive any benefits from participation.
Is there a chance I will receive a placebo?
Some clinical trials are placebo controlled, meaning that participants are randomly assigned to either medication or placebo (an inactive substance that looks identical). These studies are usually double blind, which means that neither you nor your doctor will know which treatment you are receiving. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that medications be proven safe and significantly more effective than placebo before being marketed in the U.S.. Placebo controlled studies provide free evaluation, medication, laboratory tests and clinical visits for the duration of the study. Inpatient studies also provide free hospitalization.