Using clinicaltrials.gov

The following are suggestions for searching for trials you might want to participate in, in hopes of getting better:

• In "Condition or disease", be sure to use the full name, not the "ALS" abbreviation, and spell it correctly: "amyotrophic lateral sclerosis". If you start typing in that field, you should see this option come up after a few letters typed.
• Under "Study Type", you may want to choose "Interventional" - otherwise you'll also get "Observational" studies - which are important, but which don't test a treatment.
• Under "Recruitment status", pick "Recruiting" for trials that are actively recruiting new participants; pick "Not yet recruiting" for upcoming trials.
• You may want to choose "Phase 3" (and maybe "Phase 2") to limit the search results to studies of drugs that have been shown to actually do something in people with the disease. Phase 1 is often done with healthy people to simply test safety in humans; Phase 2 sometimes studies only safety in people with the disease, not efficacy - check the "Outcome Measures" on the page that has the details of the study.
• If you search for studies "Not yet recruiting", you probably do NOT want to include any search criteria based on location, since studies that are not yet recruiting usually do not have the study sites listed yet.

The following are tips for understanding the details of a study:

• "Arms and Interventions" indicate the groupings of participants. Often there will be at least one arm that gets the drug, and one that gets a placebo. Sometimes, different arms get different doses (amounts) of the drug.
• "Outcome Measures" describes how they will determine success vs. failure of the trial.
• "Eligibility Criteria" will indicate:
  • Age range of participants - if you're not in that range, you canNOT participate.
  • "Inclusion Criteria" - you must meet all these to participate.
  • "Exclusion Criteria" - if any of these applies to you, you canNOT participate.
• "Contacts" should have a phone number and/or email address you can use to get more info or to let them know you would like to participate.
• "Locations" (you may have to click on the plus sign next to "Show xx Study Locations") lists the sites that are participating in the study. It's tough to participate in a study that is not close to you.