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Post by vark on May 3, 2013 19:19:29 GMT -5
naltrexone, if it doesn't make you puke, will throw your safety labs way off. you could easily get banned. do one or the other, not both.
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Post by vark on Apr 8, 2013 22:22:24 GMT -5
paul is already banned from *******. so am i, for a different reason. he takes the threat of a lawsuit seriously, so i respect his decision. i used to be a lawyer, not a very good one, and i'd be happy to help paul if he ever got sued, but he'd also need a real lawyer, and that's hard for a lab rat to afford.
anyway, about being picky. i mostly will take any study i'm offered if the price and timing are right. i'm old and not in perfect health and i don't always get in, so when i get in i take it. i wish the clinics would do a better job of emailing the informed consent docs, so i could know about the study details before i drive there. once i've spent money to screen it's too late for me to back out.
i had a very unpleasant screening at medpace recently, took a niacin pill and suffered for a few hours, and didnt get in anyway, and the schedule wasn't what they said it would be. but in general i haven't had a lot of problems from the drugs themselves. i've puked from naltrexone at one study,and puked from a glass of booze we took with the pill at another, but no problems with the meds themselves. i would not do a spinal tap study. i do not like the places like abbot where you have to eat everything - but i'll do it. i would do a nasa study if they'd take me, but that one is tough and not for everybody. i haven't been offered much in the way of "brain slug" studies where it affects your cognition. i eagerly do hiv studies because those are important.
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Post by vark on Apr 1, 2013 20:53:23 GMT -5
i'm no tax expert, but i doubt there's any new law saying we don't have to pay income tax on study money.
i'm guessing that for her her study income, less expenses, didn't add up to enough that she would have to pay. my limited understanding is that people who only occasionally do studies can declare it as "other income", and avoid fica. us full time lab rats pay fica and income tax on our net income, not gross. deductible things might include mileage, hotels, per diem food expenses when away from home for work of around $60 a day, expenses for say phone or internet if you have those for lab ratting (and not just personal use.) i ended up owing $300 in fica, zero federal income, $15 state income, on about $28K gross ($18K from lab ratting) - i was able to write off much of my gross, for stuff like greyhound tickets.
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Post by vark on Mar 28, 2013 7:11:00 GMT -5
can you rephrase your question? not sure what you are asking. short version, pick some clinics close to you, check their web pages, see if they have a study that fits, give them a call. if they don't list the studies, just call.
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Post by vark on Mar 22, 2013 19:50:04 GMT -5
if the death was of a healthy volunteer, i think we would have heard about it. this was likely to have been a patient study. still yikes. everybody has to make their own decisions about risks. most of us don't care too much, knowing that if it gets past the irb it's probably safe enough to do - i find being broke to be risky in itself. but it's still up to you. the irb that [redacted] uses seems to be entirely controlled by the industry, with no concern for the rats.
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Post by vark on Mar 22, 2013 19:41:20 GMT -5
for those of us who do studies regularly, we are considered selfemployed, and mileage is an expense that can be deducted from gross. there's a standard rate per mile, i forget how much, you can use turbotax or taxhawk free online to rough it out. for those who only do a study now and then, it can be listed as "other income", and expenses can be deducted as well.
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Post by vark on Mar 19, 2013 18:50:34 GMT -5
it's good that you are asking tough questions. more of us should do that. what i suggest is when talking to recruiters or doing the consent interview, maybe tape it. that is, you can bring your laptop and have it recording into a sound file. that way you have a record of what was actually said. be careful if they have policies against that, but that shouldn't apply to screening? one of the many catch-22s is they ask on the screening form, were all your questions answered, and you have to write yes even when it was really no, or they won't let you in the study.
i was banned from [unmentionable] for asking that they follow their own rules, and i got the runaround from the IRB and the company president,and I'm still unhappy about it.
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Post by vark on Mar 8, 2013 20:31:49 GMT -5
good advice here. i personally can't drink caffeine before a screening - it makes my ekg too jumpy. i know what you mean about long drives with no caffeine. people (muggles, civilians) react to lab ratting as though it's very dangerous, but i tell them the dangerous part is all that driving.
you are right that it can be harder to get in at a new clinic. but the converse of this is that it can be worth doing a study at a new clinic so that next time you aren't the new kid. i did a $3700 at a new clinic last fall and two months later they called me for another $3700, a slight variation of the earlier study. it's frustrating when i get in at a new clinic (icon omaha) and it closes. today i got a call that the study i was screening for has been pushed back two weeks -again- so i'm sitting around with nothing to do right now, which suits me fine.
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Post by vark on Mar 6, 2013 15:05:41 GMT -5
related, i just didnt make it into a study because my QT was 434 and the cut-off was 430.
is there anything that can help to lower this number, alternatively anything to avoid that can raise the number?
generally, after doing studies for 5 years, i still don't know how to read an ekg. is there a site that can explain it like i'm 5?
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Post by vark on Mar 6, 2013 15:00:52 GMT -5
i screened for it, didn't get in, was too honest. my roommate is doing it, says it's one of the worst studies he's done, puking, side effects, etc.
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Post by vark on Feb 25, 2013 17:32:35 GMT -5
I will be there for 20 days in march, unless i don't pass the dr's exam or they make me an alternate. Any tips on what to bring or what not to bring? earplugs mentioned above sounds like a good idea. i'll bring a laptop, two books, a thermometer. not sure yet about pillow, blanket.
latest update: didn't get in at the second screening, ekg slightly off. i'm annoyed because when you sign up they tell you they do the procedures on the first visit and the the second visit is just a doctors appointment, but actually they don't do the ekg till the second visit. when i dont get into studies it's because of the ekg. so i'm out $400 and a couple weeks time and a lot of hiking around nebraska in february. i had cancelled my vince screening to go to this one. = the next time i screened at celerion i got in, but was an alternate, so i still lost a little money. I am down $1000 total in trying to get in at this place. i screened there recently (2015) but got in somewhere else so i didnt end up calling in to see if i got in.
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Post by vark on Feb 19, 2013 12:50:06 GMT -5
if you live anywhere near a university hospital, there are usually some small studies going on. it can be hard to find the info. in my town there's one bulletin board near the cafeteria in the basement where they post flyers. check craigslist and the ads in the local alternative weekly. the website for my local hospital's studies is terrible and not useful. so i haven't actually done any of the local small studies here. my first study was a $300 two weekend study back years ago when i was in school, which got me started on this wonderful career track.
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Post by vark on Feb 19, 2013 12:38:56 GMT -5
prism is that way. fargo was but not anymore. covance hawaii is that way. celerion nebraska lets me screen - i'll be there tomorrow - although for some reason they won't let me screen at nebraska and neptune; i had to pick one. it might have been quintiles (or was it celerion) where it depends on the study; if there are a bunch of returns they want you to be local. most places don't care.
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Post by vark on Feb 19, 2013 12:31:01 GMT -5
i don't know but it would be wise to assume so. pra and quintiles check with each other and vince is just around the corner from quintiles. i have my first screening there in march.
edited later: i will probably cancel my vince screening since i think i got in somewhere else.
pra and quintiles disclose in writing that they check with each other, i'm pretty sure, so i think it's in the consent you sign. i'm not gonna try and find my paperwork now.
i have a study buddy who ran into a problem with this. he had screened at both places, but not accepted into either study yet. the recruiters at one of the places - i forget which - got mad at him over this, and i think banned him. this seems to me to be unethical; they should not be coercing us by keeping us from screening at other places. that happened to me once at the clinic that cannot be named in indiana; they had told me i was in, but when i happened to mention i had screened somewhere else they withdrew the offer of the study. i didn't want it anyway, too long for the pay involved, but another example of unethical conduct at that place.
- may update: screened at vince and no extra consent form for them to get your data from quintiles/pra. (i don't go to either of those places anyway. the last time i was at quintiles was so long ago it was still called innovex.)
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Post by vark on Feb 5, 2013 22:00:37 GMT -5
for me i'm content being a slug, having no muscle tone. like drugs, it's just one of the things i choose to give up to do studies.
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