Participating in a research study enables you to make an important contribution to our understanding of depression, anxiety, and mood disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder. It can also offer an opportunity for evaluation, diagnosis, and possible treatment, depending on the individual and the study.
Many people have questions about the process. Below, we address many of the issues that commonly arise.
Take a brief survey to help us determine if you’re eligible for one of our studies.
We have a standard process to see if you are eligible for our studies that begins with either a brief online survey and/or a short phone call with a staff member. If your initial responses suggest that you may be a good fit for one of our studies, we conduct an in-person visit at our offices. Once we have completed the in-person visit, we will be able to discuss the studies for which you may be eligible.
Though the nature of each research study varies, participation begins with a visit to our office to complete a screening psychiatric assessment. Beyond this, the required activities differed based on the study. Common activities that our studies involve are questionnaires, blood tests, computer tasks, and brain scans. The length of participation also varies between studies, and all of our studies provide compensation for your time. For more detailed information about what each of our current studies involves, visit our Current Studies page.
Once you complete the phone screen, we aim to contact you within three business days to schedule any further screening. After the in-person screening, we may have to wait for test results and additional records to determine your eligibility. We typically know within a week of the in-person screening visit if you are eligible to participate in a study
Some studies utilize a placebo as a comparison to the treatment being investigated, others so do not. If a study uses placebos, we will tell you about this possibility prior to your participation. Participation is always voluntary and you can choose to withdraw participation should you not feel comfortable potentially receiving a placebo.
We are primarily an outpatient program; however, some of our studies do involve inpatient communities.
We are open during regular business hours (e.g., Monday through Friday, 9 – 5 pm), with some flexibility during the work week.
We offer follow-up consultation to participants in our studies for a limited time following study participation in which you can meet with one of our psychiatrists for a consultation about treatment options. After the follow-up time, you should coordinate arrangements for longer-term care with your insurance or current health care providers.
As many of the treatments that are studied within our program are at various stages of testing and approval, we cannot guarantee that you will be able to be prescribed the treatment at the end of a study. We will work with you to develop an aftercare treatment plan at study exit, which may or may not involve continuation of the experimental treatment.
The length of study participation varies for each of our studies. You can find more detailed information on our Current Studies page.
We compensate all study subjects. The amount of compensation depends on the individual study and your level of participation. Information about the amount a particular study compensates can be given by the study coordinator responsible.
Most of our studies don’t require prior diagnosis of a mood disorder. During our initial screening procedures, you will complete a psychiatric assessment with our staff and we will use this information to determine whether you are eligible for any of our studies.
While the goal of our research is to create more effective treatments, it is important to know that you may or may not get any personal benefit from taking part in our research. Through participating, however, you make an important contribution to our understanding of the biology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders.