Before new medical drugs and treatments are approved for prescription and public use, they must be approved through tried-and-true research methods. Research is completed through clinical trials so that doctors can determine the procedures of new treatments, how new treatments can affect patient (side effects), and determining the correct dosage of treatment for individuals, dependent upon the likes of height, weight, and age.

Clinical research pharmaceutical companies, of which make 5 of the 11 leading research institutions worldwide, are working meticulously to ensure that safe treatments are entering the marketplace. While there are 100,000 over-the-counter drugs sold in the U.S., only 56 new ones were launched in 2015.

Clinical research is performed through various trials, of which follow through stages one to four. The flow of these stages work to ensure that drugs are initially safe for human use, determining dosage, and officially determining long-term safety of treatments. While clinical trials are used to determine the effectiveness of treatments for various diseases and ailments — cancer, skin diseases, anxiety, let’s consider paid depression studies.

Participants taking part in clinical trials are usually paid for their time, and paid depression studies are part of this. Along with testing other means of treatment methods, paid depression studies are performed to determine the effectiveness of depression medication like SSRIs and other medication. These paid depression studies are performed under strict guidelines, wherein researchers are taking the time to determine that the included individuals are safe and mentally improving over the course of clinical research.

Phase 1 Clinical Trials

Phase 1 of paid depression studies are usually performed on only 10 to 30 volunteers, determining the basic dosage of medicine and seeing if it is healthy for human use. Researchers will aim to discover if there are any basic side effects and physical reactions to medication based upon a volunteer’s health.

Phase 2 Clinical Trials

Phase 2 will include more people than phase 1, and it will often last longer, too. Phase 2 trials can last up to two years, closely watching volunteers to determine the drug’s effectiveness at treating depression over a long period of time. People will usually be broken into two groups during this trial phase, testing the treatment against older treatments, seeing how they differ and how dosage differs from group one to group two.

Phase 3 Clinical Trials

Phase 3 will once again include more people, but the goal of this stage is to determine the overall safety and effectiveness of this drug across a large population of people. The new treatment from phase 2 will be compared to traditional treatment methods, seeing whether or not is improves on the traditional methods, or has any positive effects for people who the traditional method did not perform well.

Phase 4 Clinical Trials

The last phase of clinical trials, phase 4 is when the long-term safety of a drug is determined, as well as putting it through the final stages of approval for prescription and public use. Not all treatments that reach this stage actually make it to public use, as there are a variety of guidelines that must be met to ensure public safety.