(Off Topic!) Studies Show LAM Patients Participate in Clinical Trials to Help Others, Not Themselves

[OKIsItJustMe]

I'm posting this, because a number of posters in this forum seem to assume that humanity is beyond redemption.

http://www.healthnews.uc.edu/news/?/8566/

Publish Date: 05/14/09
Media Contact: Katie Pence, [phone]

Studies Show LAM Patients Participate in Clinical Trials to Help Others, Not Themselves

CINCINNATI—Two recent studies by researchers at the University of Cincinnati bring to light interesting findings about the diagnosis of the rare lung disease Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) and the reasons LAM patients participate in research studies.

Brent Kinder, MD, Frank McCormack, MD, and Jared Hagaman, MD, working with colleagues in the division of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at UC, found that patients with LAM were more likely to participate in clinical trials because of a shared cause and a feeling of altruism, as opposed to personal benefit.

…

In the first study, 918 LAM patients in North America were surveyed to determine who participated in clinical trials and why. Of the 918 surveyed, 263 patients responded.

“Age, disease duration, use of oxygen therapy and disease presentation without chest pain were associated with trial participation, but the desire to help others with similar health problems was at the top of list,” says Kinder, also director of the Interstitial Lung Disease Center at UC.

Results showed that 16 percent of LAM patient respondents participated in a clinical trial, but 85 percent of those people participated to help future patients.

…