Depression is a term used to describe feelings of sadness, anxiety, loneliness, despair, and other troubling emotions. People with depression often struggle to control these emotions and have trouble controlling when these emotions occur. Sufferers can become withdrawn or aggressive and depending on the level of depression, some sufferers may have psychotic episodes or suicidal thoughts.
Doctors continuously study the reasons for depression and possible treatments. Comparative studies are one type of trial done during depression clinical trials. Sand Diego and other areas in California offer a number of facilities that administer clinical trials to eligible participants who’d like to help doctors and researchers find better treatments for depression.
What Is a Comparative Study?
For some clinical trials, doctors aren’t just testing a new drug on a test group. Instead, doctors are prescribing new drugs or treatments to patients currently undergoing depressive symptoms and comparing test results to those of people without depression. This helps doctors understand which parts of the brain react to different therapies, and how the reaction compares to people without depression. It can help doctors determine if there is a problem with certain brain receptors and research the best methods to treat it.
In some depression clinical trials in San Diego, researchers will administer medication and a placebo pill. A placebo pill will have no effect medically on someone’s depression, but it may mentally. Doctors will compare the depressive states of people taking the drug and those unknowingly taking the placebo to determine how much of depression is medical and how much is psychological. Researchers may also compare levels of inflammation in the brain and nerve reactions to therapy when completing a comparative study.
Who Qualifies for a Comparative Study?
Most facilities that administer depression clinical trials in San Diego require applicants to fill out a questionnaire to determine eligibility. In most cases, you will need to have symptoms of depression, and possibly a medical diagnosis of depression, in order to be eligible for tests. Each clinical trial has different requirements based on what the research needs to determine. You may need to have depression but not had any symptoms in a few weeks or months, or you may need to be in an active bout of depression in order to qualify. The easiest way to qualify is to call your local trial facility and request information on upcoming depression trials.
If you’re interested in participating in depression clinical trials in San Diego.
