You’ve heard about them – clinical trials where people volunteer to undergo some sort of health or biomedical testing, either briefly or over study periods lasting for months. But how do they work? How would you find them? Is this something that might actually help your ankylosing spondylitis?

What Are Clinical Trials?
Clinical trials are research studies that follow a pre-defined series of processes (a “protocol”) so that results can be compared, validated, and reproduced by other researchers.

The goal of a clinical trial is to test the effect of some variable – for example, a medication, a behavior, or a type of therapy – on a specific health condition. There are generally two types of clinical trials:

  • interventional – involves assigning research subjects to a treatment or other “intervention,” and then measuring the results of that intervention, and
  • observational – involves simply observing individuals without any sort of intervention, and then measuring the results of their behaviors and/or actions

Where Can You Find Clinical Trials for Ankylosing Spondylitis?
The U.S. National Institutes of Health has created ClinicalTrials.gov as a clearinghouse or “registry” of all federally and privately supported clinical trials going on in the U.S. and around the world. The site provides information about the clinical research purpose or goals for each trial, who is eligible to participate, locations where the trial is being held, and contact information. Currently, the site lists more than 80,000 trials located in 170 countries.

For clinical trials related to ankylosing spondylitis, go to Search Clinical Trials, and enter “ankylosing spondylitis” and your geographic location, if you’re specifically looking for a trial located near you. A recent search for ankylosing spondylitis clinical trials showed a count of nearly 100 research projects. The database will return a list of studies that includes their status (e.g., recruiting, terminated, active – not recruiting, completed, not yet recruiting, etc.), a detailed description of the study and its goals, an indication of what specific aspect of a condition is being focused on, and the type of intervention involved.

You can also see a list of studies by drug intervention, sponsor, and location, noted under “Study Topics” on the home page.

To learn more about clinical trials in general, check out the extensive and user-friendly overview of all aspects of clinical trials under "Understanding Clinical Trials."  Here you’ll find a wealth of answers to questions about what clinical trials are, how they work, how to participate, etc.

Benefits of Participating in an Ankylosing Sspondylitis Clinical Trial
There are several reasons you might want to participate in a clinical trial for ankylosing spondylitis.

First, it’s a way to take a more active role in seeking out potential new solutions for your ankylosing spondylitis – thus enabling you to take a more active role in your health. Second, it allows you to have access to innovative new research treatments before they become available to the general public – treatments that have the potential to be life-changing for people with ankylosing spondylitis.

Third, from an altruistic standpoint, your participation may help others in the future. Even if a research study serves only to prove that a medical treatment failed to produce the hoped-for benefit, that is one more building block in the process of identifying the solution that will, eventually, be found.

Is an Ankylosing Spondylitis Clinical Trial for You?
It depends. Some people are eager to participate in any study that might alleviate or at least lessen the impact of their condition, while others prefer not to subject themselves to the restrictions of the study, or to be used as a “guinea pig.”  But for those who are interested in participating in clinical trials, this is the place to start – you’ll not only possibly be helping yourself, but also definitely be helping those individuals dealing with ankylosing spondylitis in years to come.