NAPWA

People with HIV who use complementary and alternative medicines are being invited to join a new study by the Australian Research Centre for Sex, Health and Society.

The centre, at Melbourne’s La Trobe University, has commenced a research project into positive people’s experiences with complementary and alternative medicine and with conventional western medicine. This is not a clinical trialA clinical trial is a research study to answer specific questions about vaccines or new therapies or new ways of using known treatments. Clinical trials are used to determine whether new drugs or treatments are both safe and effective. Carefully conducted clinical trials are the fastest and safest way to find treatments that work in people. Trials are in four phases: Phase I tests a new drug or treatment in a small group; Phase II expands the study to a larger group of people; Phase III expands the study to an even larger group of people; and Phase IV takes place after the drug or treatment has been licensed and marketed. , but a social research project which will use interviews to understand the ways that use of complementary medicine affects attitudes to conventional medicine, and vice-versa. Participants will be interviewed for 1–2 hours at a location of their own choice.

Initially the study will be conducted in Victoria only, but if further funding can be obtained the centre hopes to make the study national. People interested in participating in this study should phone Sean Slavin on (03) 9285 5302 or email s.slavin@latrobe.edu.au. People outside Victoria can leave their contact details for future contact if the study expands nationally.

The Futures 3 survey found that 51 percent of positive men and 67 percent of positive women used complementary and alternative treatments. A significant majority of positive people (79 percent of men and 95 percent of women) believe such therapies can increase wellbeing and about half believe they can delay the onset of illness due to HIV.

Note: enrolmentThe act of signing up participants into a study. Generally this process involves evaluating a participant with respect to the eligibility criteria of the study and going through the informed consent process. for this trial has now closed.