Attention smokers! It is not very often these days that you hear a call to action to those who smoke. However, that is exactly what this is.
There is still a great deal of research being performed even in 2022 that centers around tobacco users and smokers. This article on paid clinical trials for smokers is meant to shed some light on how you can make money by participating in a smoking research study.
So if you are a smoker and want to learn more about how to make some extra money in a clinical study, this article is for you. Oh and maybe you can even stop smoking, if that is your goal (or not).
What Are Clinical Trials for Smokers?
Clinical trials are studies that are often performed to learn more about a topic. In this case, we are focusing on paid clinical trials for smokers. Often these trials help inform researchers on effective strategies for quitting smoking (or smoking cessation techniques) for a variety of different circumstances.
Most recently there has been a surge on studies focusing on the affects of smoking on participants who contacted Covid-19. But some of these clinical trials also look at factors in advertising and what may appeal to smokers. There are studies that examine nicotine dependence and plenty of the clinical research studies for people trying to quit smoking.
As you can see, the types of clinical studies can vary greatly.
How Does a Clinical Trial for Smokers Work?
So how do these clinical trials work? I am glad that you asked. There are generally two types of clinical trials: Inpatient and Outpatient.
If the study is an inpatient clinical trial, it means you must check in for the study and remain at the facility until the trial is complete. This could take hours to days depending on the study.
If it is an overnight study, you will stay checked in at the facilities accommodations for the duration of the study. I once participated in a sleep study that was overnight and had to stay in a mock hotel room while they monitored my sleep patterns. The room was fine, and the bed was surprisingly comfortable.
An outpatient clinical trial requires the participant to check in for an initial screening and start of the trial. The participant may then be required to come back to the facility for future follow up visits to check in on how the study is going.
Upon return visits, they may ask follow-up questions or take measurements or lab values for whatever it is they are testing.
Participants are usually divided into a control group and a test group. The control group is not given any sort of treatment but instead is given a placebo (or fake treatment, like a sugar pill instead of a medicine). The test group is then given the actual treatment (like the actual pill or medicine).
Participants may also be recruited for their direct ability to be part of the control group. For example, they may need smokers with diabetes and smokers who do not have diabetes, so regardless of which category you fit, both are needed.
What Are the Benefits of Participating in Clinical Trials for Smokers?
So why should you participate in these clinical research studies? What are the benefits of signing up for these studies? The first and most important benefit is the one question nearly everyone wants answered: Do I get paid for these studies? The answer is yes!
Some of these paid clinical trials can pay out anywhere from $50 – $300 per day or per visit. This is often dependent on the length of the study (and some studies can last days, weeks, or months) and what kind of procedures are performed. The more invasive the procedure, the larger the compensation.
Aside from money, one of the other benefits of a clinical trial is that participants generally must undergo a medical screening or physical evaluation. If it has been a while since your last check-up, this is a good way to check in on your general health.
Drug and medicine related trials often require a more extensive medical examination. This could include things like MRIs, EKGs, EEGs, or blood testing. The information gained from these examinations could be priceless when it comes to learning more about your health.
I have known people that have gone in to participate in a medical research and the examiners found something related to their diagnosis that ended up saving their life. Whether it is cancer or something as simple as allergies, these clinical trials could help treat the main reason you are there for the study.
Many, but not all of the studies are on how to quit smoking. So if this is your goal consider searching for a quit smoking study.
A final benefit of clinical study participation is the humanistic element of participating in a study. Without human test subjects, medicine would not be able to advance. If it weren’t humans participating in studies, we would not have cures for diseases like HIV and we would not have many important vaccines. So, you can consider it your good deed to humanity.
Are Clinical Trials for Smokers Safe?
There are several ways that smoking clinical trials are made to be safe for their participants. If research trials were not considered safe, nobody would do them. Therefore it only makes sense for the study organizers to run a safe research study.
The major way that clinical trials are kept safe is through a monitoring process set in place by the Institutional Review Board (or IRB for short). The IRB makes sure that the risks of any study are low and are far outweighed by the benefits.
Once a study is approved by the IRB, the organizers and researchers of the study must follow a strict protocol. You as a participant will know this protocol and will have time to review it before you decide to opt in or out of the study.
You will also always be monitored for any possible side effects of the study. It is also important to note that you may quit a clinical trial at any time if you no longer feel up to participating. If the study is causing your harm or a side effect is too much to handle, you can stop the trial.
Once you have been informed, you will have to sign an informed consent document agreeing to participate in the study (or giving your consent). Overall, due to these protocols, clinical trials for smokers are considered very safe.
Where Can You Find Paid Clinical Trials for Smokers?
The government is always a great place to start researching paid smoking studies. ClinicalTrials.Gov is the home of all the clinical trials being performed under the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
At the time this article was written, there were currently 6,400 clinical trials for smokers being performed. Over 1,300 of these were in the recruiting phase meaning they are looking for participants. This is great news if you are looking to apply to a paid clinical trial for smokers. You can find all kind of studies here: studies for cigarette smokers, nicotine gum research, users of e cigarette and other tobacco products, new treatment options etc. The list is really long 🙂
Many of them ask you to fill out your demographic information, and several of them are open to many countries across the globe. One thing the pandemic has helped with is the ability to communicate and participate in things like these studies via telecommunication.
The next place to consider for paid clinical trials for smokers is R1 and R2 Research Universities. These are the research colleges and universities that perform the most research and are held to the highest of research standards. Here is a list of all of the top research universities.
You can visit their websites and search clinical trials and it should bring you to the page where all their current studies are housed. If you include smoking and/or tobacco in the search results it will narrow down studies specifically for smokers and tobacco users.
These studies often range from physical affects of smoking to psychological affects of smoking. Not only could you be helping yourself and humanity, but you could also be helping a PhD student complete their dissertation.
Hopefully this article elevated your interest and awareness of medical trials for smokers. At any given time, there are always many studies being performed particularly focused on smoking and tobacco use.
For more articles like this one and to get even more great information on ways to generate more money through side gigs or side hustles, sign up for the Stan’s Gigs newsletter. Leave us a comment below if you have participated in a paid clinical trial for smokers and let us know how your experience was.
Dr F Scott Feil is a husband, a father, a physical therapist (PT, DPT, EdD, Cert-APHPT), a professor, and most recently an Amazon best-selling author. F Scott is  also a business coach and mentor. He is one of the creators and co-hosts of the Healthcare Education Transformation Podcast which aims to break down the silos between healthcare professions in an attempt to find best practices in teaching and learning throughout healthcare academia. He also hosts the Professors of Profit Podcast where he interviews healthcare professionals about their side gigs and side hustles. His goal is to help at least 222 professors and clinicians pay off their student loans quicker and/or more efficiently by using multiple revenue streams. He is also the owner of PTEducator.com , FGI Consulting, and Epic Therapy and Wellness.
Would like too participate.