Clinical Trials

Treatments cannot advance without clinical trials. Clinical trials are necessary to test the effectiveness of new therapies and to develop better ways of using known treatments. In some cases, they can make the difference between life and death for patients or a significantly improved quality of life.

To this end, those with epilepsy are in a special position to help others through participating in medical research that can lead to effective treatments.

Participating in a clinical trial, however, is a significant commitment and one should always have a good understanding about the study and clinical trials in general before any agreement is made.

The National Institute of Health's website will help you gain a broad understanding of clinical trials. Learn possible benefits and pitfalls of clinical trials, what questions you should ask before participating, as well as the fundamental steps involved in clinical experiments.

Women who are considering participating in a clinical trial often have special needs. This fact sheet, published by the government, may address specific concerns you have.

We provide access to two lists of current research studies in epilepsy recruiting volunteers: clinicaltrials.gov and CenterWatch.

These lists represent only a small amount of epilepsy studies seeking volunteers. To find out about other studies, you can look for advertisements in newspapers or trade journals. Your own health care provider may be conducting research for which you are eligible or may know of other studies looking for volunteers. If you do a search on the internet, you will find that many medical sites have email lists you can join to be notified of available studies.

Pregnant women with epilepsy who are taking antiepileptic drugs can help researchers learn how certain drugs affect unborn children by participating in the Antiepileptic Drug Pregnancy Registry.