Document 0590
 DOCN  M9590590
 TI    AIDS clinical trials: why they have recruiting problems. Clearinghouse,
       P.O. Box 6003, Rockville, MD 20849-6003. 800-458-5231 ext. 5023.
 DT    9509
 AU    Mirkin B
 SO    AIDS Treat News. 1995 Feb 17;(no 217):1-4. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE
       AIDS/95700328
 AB    Enrolling the number of volunteers needed for clinical trials is a
       significant problem. There are generally two obstacles to enrollment in
       AIDS trials: the quality of the publicity and outreach efforts, and the
       design of the trials themselves. Drug companies' efforts at maintaining
       secrecy for their new treatment drugs are viewed as a roadblock to
       properly promoting clinical trials. Variances in quality and content of
       news releases, flyers, and other promotional materials regarding new
       trials lead to either excellent understanding of the treatment being
       studied, or to confusion. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines
       for advertisements to recruit subjects also dilute promotional
       effectiveness. Large candidate resources such as women, people of color,
       and other underserved populations are largely ignored for clinical
       trials. Reasons include additional costs of caring, transporting, and
       sheltering many of these people; and unspoken prejudices. Study designs
       with too many exclusion rules or overly narrow inclusion criteria often
       disrupt recruiting vigor and sometimes bar the very people the study
       needs. There is also a tendency for study designs to not fit real-world
       needs. For example, long-term monotherapy trials become less attractive
       over time as combination therapy becomes more promising. Finally, there
       is a belief that potential volunteers are becoming burnt out due to
       pessimism about what trials can do for them.
 DE    *Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome  Blacks  CD4 Lymphocyte Count
       *Clinical Trials  Ethics, Medical  Hispanic Americans  Human  Women's
       Health  NEWSLETTER ARTICLE

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