About clinical research

Clinical research is medical research that is carried out on humans. Individuals volunteer to participate in studies that aim to uncover better ways to treat, prevent, diagnose and understand human disease.
Clinical research includes both clinical trials that test new treatments and natural history studies, which provide valuable information about how diseases progress.
If you are considering taking part in a clinical trial, the doctor in charge of the trial will give you a lot of information about the treatment being tested, the possible results and the possible side-effects. It is always worth finding out as much as you can before you agree to take part.
Even before you get to the stage of talking to a doctor about a specific trial, you can read a lot about the general principles of clinical trials online.
Two useful resources providing general information about clinical research created by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) are provided below.
How does clinical research work?
Children and clinical studies
Finding out information about clinical trials
The most comprehensive online listing of trials is at www.clinicaltrials.gov: you can search for trials for a particular condition. We have also collected the listings of trials for specific diseases and you can find this in the "current trials" section in the menu on the left.
The UK Muscular Dystrophy Campaign also has a listing of neuromuscular-related clinical trials in the UK and across the world available from the following link: