Research Opportunities

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.

The Bipolar Disorders Clinic is a research clinic, and patients generally participate in one or more studies. Criteria for participating in research are the same as that for becoming a patient. Being part of a research clinic provides patients access to the latest treatments, some of which may not yet be generally available.

Patients experiencing severe mood symptoms, and who meet specific criteria, are also given the option to participate in randomized clinical trials, which provide medication, additional education or psychotherapy, and more intensive monitoring.   To participate in a research study at the Bipolar Disorders Clinic you must live within a 90 mile radius of Stanford University.

Check out the National Institute of Mental Health's guide to participating in research.

Below are the rights of a research participant.

Human Subjects Bill of Rights

Persons who participate in a medical experiment are entitled to certain rights. These rights include but are not limited to the subject's right to:

1. be informed of the nature and purpose of the experiment;
2. be given an explanation of the procedures to be followed in the medical experiment, and any drug or device to be utilized;
3. be given a description of any attendant discomforts and risks reasonably to be expected;
4. be given an explanation of any benefits to the subject reasonably to be expected, if applicable;
5. be given a disclosure of any appropriate alternatives, drugs, or devices that might be advantageous to the subject, their relative risks and benefits;
6. be informed of the avenues of medical treatment, if any, available to the subject after the experiment if complications should arise;
7. be given an opportunity to ask questions concerning the experiment or the procedures involved;
8. be instructed that consent to participate in the medical experiment may be withdrawn at any time and the subject may discontinue participation without prejudice;
9. be given a copy of the signed and dated consent form;
10. and be given the opportunity to decide to consent or not to consent to a medical experiment without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, coercion or undue influence on the subject's decision.