Patients are a virtue

By Matt Goulding
Daily Bruin Reporter

Last June, with school expenses steadily mounting and funds
rapidly depleting, fourth-year psychology student Robert Yacoub
sold his body to science.

“There’s always ads in the newspaper looking for
student subjects,” Yacoub said. “If you can take some
pain, it’s easy money.”

After passing the preliminary health exams, including blood
tests, Yacoub spent the evening in the UCLA Medical Center as a
subject for diabetes research.

After feeding him in his standard hospital room, he began his
12-hour fast.

He arose early to the mouth-watering delicacies of intravenous
consumption ““ a square breakfast of glucose in a tube. During
the three hours of injection, experiment conductors did periodic
blood work and watched Yacoub closely to ensure that he was
comfortable.

A few pints later, Yacoub shed the hospital nightgown and
visions of needle penetration as he emerged onto Westwood Boulevard
$200 richer.

Yacoub said he was impressed with the accommodations, food and
the ease and speed of the testing.

Since then, he has also participated in a private study
involving alcohol.

A dream more than a job for many, for the test Yacoub would
consume an undisclosed amount of alcohol, then perform tasks in his
various stages of inebriation. The alcohol, a high-brow
orange-flavored vodka, came in different levels of potency to
produce different effects on the consumer.

The danger and stress were taken out of driving simulators and
field sobriety tests as subjects attempted each task anywhere from
slightly buzzed to slightly sauced.

Yacoub, who received $800 for five drunken Saturday sessions,
said he was never concerned or uncomfortable during his time as a
subject.

“All the doctors and research people were really
cool,” he said. “They’re concerned about you and
they want you to be comfortable. They told me anytime I wanted to
leave, I could.”

Along with the careful screening process and the treatment by
professionals, volunteers are given a Patients’ Bill of
Rights to further assuage any anxiety they may have over the
testing.

As associate director for human subject research, Steve Peckman
is one of the people in charge of assuring volunteers a safe and
comfortable experience.

All research conducted at UCLA conforms to federal regulations
set forth by the Department of Health and Human Services, Peckman
said.

The three Institutional Review Boards ““ groups comprised
of faculty members, clinicians, researchers and non-scientific
members ““ ensure the rights and welfare of subjects by
carefully evaluating the experiments.

The issue of volunteer safety is a particularly sensitive topic
around research institutes across the country after the death of a
research subject at Johns Hopkins University last month.

The death of Ellen Roche, a volunteer in an asthma study at the
university, has raised questions in the medical community as to the
effectiveness of the regulating process.

According to Peckman, UCLA’s standards for subject safety
have been carefully assessed since the death.

“Anytime a research institute has problems, we do a
self-assessment,” he said. “We found that we are
operating at a high level. We are meeting both the letter and
spirit of federal regulations.”

Even research involving taking drugs not currently approved by
the FDA, which was the nature of the experiment in which Roche
partook, is not considered a risk for subjects, Peckman said.

“We do not pay people to undertake risks,” he said.
“Payment is equitable to the time and inconvenience for the
subject.”

Monetary compensation, he said, should not be an undue influence
for volunteers; participants should partake in the research because
of its potential impact on society, he said.

For many students, like fifth-year mechanical engineering
student Zack Krevor, this view is not realistic.

“Students need money and that’s the main
motivation,” he said. “Sure, it’s a bonus that we
may be helping someone out, but I would never go in there for free.
Not after my experience as a subject.”

Earlier this year, Krevor volunteered for an experiment that
called for subjects allergic to cats.

In the preliminary tests, they pricked him simultaneously with
eight different needles representing potential irritants like cat,
grass and pollen. Each prick left a bump on Krevor’s arm,
from nearly unnoticeable to hardly bearable.

“What really killed me was the dust,” he said.
“It was a huge welt, about an inch in diameter, and it itched
for days. I had to buy a bottle of calamine lotion myself. I used
half the bottle in two days.”

The researchers said Krevor wasn’t “allergic
enough” to cats and they couldn’t use him. Had he
qualified, they would place drops of the cat formula into his nose
and monitor his reaction.

“They asked if they could keep my name in a file for
dust,” he said. “I got nervous and started to ask
questions, but they were really vague. That’s when I said,
“˜How much do I need money? Maybe I’ll get a real job
instead of being a professional research subject.'”

But the fact remains that the role of a human research subject
is vital and necessary for institutes like UCLA, Peckman said.

“If you consider the multiple disciplines represented at
UCLA, we run research in all of these fields,” he said.

Amidst this melange of exploration, young women are helping to
find cures for premenstrual symptoms, psychology students are
becoming data for discovering answers to socio-behavioral questions
and longtime smokers are continuing to expose the perils of their
habit.

For Yacoub, the question of whether to volunteer for such
studies is simple.

“You’re helping people out and you’re getting
money on the side,” he said. “Just be sure to not do
anything that might cause a lot of pain. Make sure you won’t
do anything you might regret.”