Recruiting Research Participants Wanted: Benzodiazepines and Health

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UTAS Benzo Study

Greenlighter
Joined
Oct 13, 2013
Messages
10
Hi all,

My name is Aneliese and I’m a Doctor of Psychology Candidate at the University of Tasmania.

We’re looking for people who take benzodiazepines to contribute to a survey:
We’re investigating the relationship between short and long-term benzodiazepine use and day to day living. We’re interested in areas such as driving, accidents, slips of memory and how you think benzodiazepines affect your life.

Why this research is important:
Benzodiazepines are widely prescribed medications with a variety of beneficial effects. A great deal is known about the immediate effects when you first start taking the medications, for example, they can affect your thinking and driving. However, the impact when people have been taking them for days, weeks and months is less clear. As such, it is important that research examines the association between benzodiazepines, health, and driving over time.

We need people:
  • Who have used a benzodiazepine in the last 12 months
  • Are over 18 years of age
  • Who have a current driver’s licence
  • Who live in Australia
The survey is online, anonymous and takes about 25 minutes to complete

In appreciation of your time, at the end of the survey, you may choose to enter a draw to WIN 1 OF 3 $500 COLES-MYER VOUCHERS!

To find out more:
This study has been approved by the Tasmania Social Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee (Reference Number: H12343) and is expected to run from August 2013 to December 2014.

Thanks very much for your time.
 
I'm curios. Does this include all drugs that are positive allosteric modulators at the benzodiazepine binding sites (such as Zolpidem, Zopiclone, etc)? Or just benzodiazepines specifically?
 
Hi, the study is just looking at benzodiazepines. Whilst there is considerable overlap in the action and effects of z-drugs and benzos, it just beyond the scope of the study to look at multiple classes of drugs. In fact, just the amount of benzos that there are means that I need a large participant pool (500+) in order to tease out the different effects of different benzos.
 
Hi all,

Hope you've had a restful holiday period. I'm still busy recruiting for this study, so if the criteria apply to you I would greatly appreciate you completing the survey.

Cheers, Aneliese
 
Still recruiting - please consider completing the survey if it applies to you.

We are looking for people who:
- Have used a benzodiazepine in the last 12 months
- Are over 18 years of age
- Have a current driver’s licence
- Are living in Australia

Find the survey at: www.tinyurl.com/utasbenzo

3 x $500 Coles-Myer Vouchers up for grabs!!

Thanks :)
 
Regard to medical research ( chemical, that is )

Dear An, I meet all requirements except i live in the States. If your research should extend here,please inform me. I have been on many diverse Brands that are in the Benzo Group and I could write verse and chapter on just about each one i ingested, route, Etc. If an Analgesic study arises, I could do better. The short 33+ years of personal Evaluation that i have done while trying this script or that script enables the recognition of many differences per Drug, per Generic, and on and on. GOOD HUNTING! --- Please Do NOT take this the wrong way, except it would be remiss of me not to say. Over the short 34 years of my ingestion i have watched BIG-PHARMA evolve into a Monster. Please don't insult me by mixing Diphenhydramine w/ a Sweet Base & sell it as Ny___L Z. "The Lust Of Avarice Seized Upon Man That Their Wealth Seems to Posses Them Rather Than The Other Way Around" ( Pliny, well parsed ) GOOD HUNTING !
 
Hi there, it sounds like you would have a wealth of information that I would love to access, but unfortunately my research is only looking at people living in Australia. Thanks so much for your interest :)
 
May I ask who is sponsoring this research and how much consideration have you considered to the privacy of the entrants?

Will the results (primarily potentially sensitive, personably identifiable information) be shared with other Australian government agencies and corporate entities? If so, which ones?

Can you give me more information about the studies stated aims and objectives and what you aim to obtain, change or influence due to the results of this study? Or is this simply a data gathering exercise with no set aims?

As an example, we all know that a lot of people suffereing PTSD and debilitating axiety/panic attacks have been recently denied life altering medicines such as Alprazolam recently due to media hysteria about its widespread abuse, when there are known abuses of many medicines which havne't been subject to gross slander campaigns across the media.

My apologies if these questions seem hostile, but from experience, there is usually no incentive for any government or government funded body to produce and/or advocate for actual scientific, evidence based policy being implemented when it goes against the current status quo. Ie: the Prohibitionist movement and the 80's "Just Say No" campaigns which proved to be extremely unpopular and ineffective in almost every measurable way prevented many from being treated with medical cannibas, MDMA for PTSD, the possibility of using hallucinogens and other as-yet untested substances for all kinds of mental illnesses. I don't proclaim to be an expert, but I do think that moral outrage is no reason to prevent scientific research on a particular class of drugs just because "drugs are bad, mmmkay". As quoted by a famous teacher.

While a $500 Coles voucher may be a good incentive for some, I'd be more interested in the actual changes that would come from participating in such research, rather than taking $500 from Wesfarmers, a company with over 40 billion ($40,000,000,00)0 in assets . Maybe if they offered everyone who volunteered $500 cash, then I'd still tell them to take their capitalism and stick it, but others might be more inclined to participate.

Thanks for your post though, and I look forward to learning more about this study.
 
jsknochem said:
Dear An, I meet all requirements except i live in the States.
Click to expand...

Same here but even though it may not seem like a major factor to us that we live in America those research projects usually require a controlled environment that may encompass cultural components like drug intake profile being influenced by local supply or even climate, as well as geographical limitations. Also some benzos that are common here may not be available at all in Australia, and vice versa. Just an example.
 
Hi opi8,

Sorry about the slow reply, to answer some of your questions...

This research is funded by the University of Tasmania - there is no other affiliation with any drug company or major organisation. In regards to the $500 Coles-Myer Voucher prize - that was chosen simply because it's appealing & useful to a wide range of people (again it's not due to any affiliation or sponsorship).

There are minimal risks to privacy in this research; information obtained is quite general and any questions can be skipped if desired. In regards to the results, yes they will be available in the public domain, but as with all results they will report general themes and trends - there would be no identifiable data about any one individual.

This research has approval from the Tasmanian Social Science Human Research Ethics Committee (Number: H12343), which requires consideration of confidentiality and risks to the participants involved. You can find further information about the privacy precautions and study aims on the site page www.tinyurl.com/utasbenzo.

Briefly summarised, the aim of this research is to look at the relationship between benzodiazepines and accidents. By using some statistical techniques, we will be able to look at what factors are most commonly associated with accidents, for example length of use, dose, other drug use, age, physical and mental health status and so on.

As a final point I'd just like to repeat that this is independent research, and there is no incentive to find results either for or against benzodiazepine use. You say that "there is usually no incentive for any government or government funded body to produce and/or advocate for actual scientific, evidence based policy being implemented" and I'm sure that in some cases this is true. However behind all of this there any many hardworking researchers, with a real passion for their field, who genuinely want to contribute to public knowledge. Furthermore, you will find that in most reputable journals any conflict of interest or funding will be openly declared.

I hope this has answered some of your questions, thanks.
 
and for those asking about people living in the states....

Kilfer is exactly right - There are certainly different benzodiazepines available in each country, not to mention other factors that might contribute like illicit drug use, road/traffic conditions, cultural factors and so on.

I'd love to have all of your knowledge too but unfortunately this is just for Australian residents :D
 
I've had a private message about confidentiality in the study, but due to the user's settings have been unable to reply privately, so hopefully they will see it here (and maybe this is useful for others also)

In regards to confidentiality, there is no requirement to use your name in the study. If you felt that any questions were potentially identifying (unlikely I would suspect) you can skip over them. All final results will be reported as general trends and measures with no individually identifying information.

As an added security you can choose to use an anonymizer, which will mask your IP address. This will mean that both the computer you are using as well as the responses you provide will be completely unidentifiable. Anonymizers work by inserting a fake computer in between your computer and our server, hence masking your IP address.

For more information, see:
http://www.torproject.org/
http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/anonymous.shtml

Thanks for your interest
 
Still recruiting....I encourage any Australian residents who have used a benzodiazepine recently to complete the survey. Thanks :)
 
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