The subject may have a disease that cannot be treated with an existing drug or regimen, participation may provide a successful treatment option before it becomes available. 

  The subject is debilitated in some way and may have the opportunity to test a drug treatment plan that would improve the quality of life.

Subjects qualified to participate in a study of a particular disease or condition had trouble finding good treatment options in the past may find access to improved care. The investigators involved in the study focus directly on the medical problem being studied.

Drugs and protocols offered during clinical trials are often provided at no cost to study participants. Subjects who have trouble affording  drugs or treatment may want to consider enrolling in a clinical trial in order to access the protocols .

Subjects with no alternatives for treatment and permanent debilitation or death might want to consider participation in a clinical trial that may give hope or possibilities that do not exist otherwise.

 Subjects may have an interest in humanitarian reasons for participation. For example, many drugs, devices and therapies have previously been tested on white men, and found to be safe and effective treatments. Fewer clinical trials have been developed for women, minorities, and children. Participation in a clinica trial that broadens the scope and use of a drug for one of these less-tested groups is useful to humanity.

Subjects may be curious about a treatment possibility and fit the profile needed for the trial.

o    Subjects do not know whether the treatment is an experimental drug or treatment, an approved drug or treatment, or a placebo (a dummy treatment.) Therefore, if the decision to participate is to try a treatment that is not yet publicly available you have at best a 50% chance of receiving the experimental treatment.

o    Side effects or outcomes could be unpleasant, could last only a short time, or could affect you for the rest of your life.

o    The treatment being studied may have no positive effect, either because you aren't receiving the treatment being studied (see above) or because the treatment isn't appropriate to help you.

o    The time and attention required of participants may be long and involved, could require hours of testing, miles of travel, hospital stays or complicated dosing.

o    New doesn't always mean better.

o    Not all clinical trials are as objective as they should be. Ideally trials are set up to be totally objective, but patients are wise to look at who/what organization is doing the investigation to be sure the study is not biased by financial gains made from a specific outcome.

For example, a drug manufacturer may have developed a new drug for asthma. It may set up a clinical trial that compares its new drug against a drug already being sold by its competitor. Smart patients and their doctors know to look at possible bias in these kinds of results since proving the new drug is better will clearly reap profits for the manufacturer of the new drug.