Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 901.
Participating in a clinical trial.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 901.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there, download the learning guide, and become a member of ESL Podcast.
This episode is a dialogue between Lucinda and Elan about clinical trials.
Let's get started.
You look tired.
Are you all right?
I'm fine.
It's this clinical trial I'm enrolled in I'm suffering from some side effects Are they serious?
No, they're not too bad.
I was told to expect some adverse reactions in the first weeks of the pilot study.
At least you know you're not in the group getting a placebo.
Who knows?
I hope not.
If I successfully get through this first phase, I'll get a full dose of the drug in phase two.
Then you may once and for all be rid of podcaster's disease.
I really hope so.
No one should go through life sounding like a podcaster.
Lucinda begins our dialogue by saying, You look tired.
Are you alright?
Are you okay?
Elan says, I'm fine.
It's this clinical trial I'm enrolled in.
A clinical trial is a careful testing of some new drug or some new procedure.
They get people who are willing to be tested with this new drug or this new treatment and see what happens.
In the United States, in order for a drug to be approved for use by the general public, by the average person, the drug company has to have these clinical trials to test what the drug does.
Ilan is enrolled in a clinical trial.
To be enrolled in something means to be signed up for something, to be registered for something.
We often use this verb, to enroll, when talking about school.
I'm going to enroll at the university.
I'm going to sign up or register to be part of the university.
Elan says, I'm suffering from some side effects.
To suffer from something means to feel pain or some other negative effect of some disease or, in this case, drug.
A side effect is something that happens to your body, a negative thing that happens to your body when you take a drug or undergo some kind of medical treatment.
A side effect would be something that is bad but is not the same thing as what the disease or illness is.
For example, you might take a drug to help you with your allergies, to help you so that you don't sneeze so much.
One of the side effects of the drug you take could be drowsiness, making you sleepy.
That could happen as a side effect.
It's not the main reason.
In fact, it's not the reason at all you're taking the drug, but it has that side effect on you.
It has that other thing that happens that is not desirable.
Lucinda says, are they serious?
Are the side effects serious?
Elan says, no, they're not too bad.
I was told to expect some adverse reactions in the first weeks of the pilot study.
An adverse ADVERSE reaction is a negative result, a negative effect.
Once again, a term that we usually associate with medical treatment.
An adverse reaction would be when you take a drug and something negative happens.
It's like a side effect.
Usually, I think it's a little more serious than that.
An adverse reaction might cause your doctor to stop giving you the drug.
Elan said he was told to expect some adverse reactions in the first weeks of the pilot study.
The study is just the trial, the period where they are studying this drug.
A pilot study... is a study that is a small experiment, a small test before the main larger study.
A pilot study would involve fewer people, perhaps for a shorter amount of time, in order to see whether the drug was going to work at all.
And then if you got some positive results from a pilot study, then you would do a larger study.
The main study,
Alain says, I guess that's why only a small group of volunteers are taking part right now.
A volunteer.
V-O-L-U-N-T-E-E-R is someone who agrees to do something, either for free or without being required to do it.
You could ask for volunteers for something at your work, even though the person is being paid for it.
We could consider them a volunteer, because they don't have to say yes.
Volunteers always have the option of not doing something.
In many contexts however, volunteer means not getting paid for something.
You do it just because you want to help.
That would be one reason.
This is a volunteer For a pilot study.
It's not clear to me that they are doing it for free, however.
They could have just volunteered in the sense of agreeing to do it without being required to do it.
This small group of volunteers is taking part right now.
To take part... means to participate, to have a role in something.
I'm taking part in the activity this afternoon.
I'm going to be part of it.
I'm going to participate in it.
These volunteers are taking part in the study.
Elan says it's so they can judge the drug's effectiveness before the pharmaceutical company does a large-scale trial.
The drug is the medicine.
Effectiveness would refer to whether it does what it says it is supposed to do, whether it works effectively.
Pharmaceutical refers to a company related to making drugs and medicine.
Large hyphen scale means a lot of people, a lot of people involved in the study.
Trial, remember, means the same as study.
So Alain says that there are only a few volunteers taking part, so that the drug company, the pharmaceutical company, can decide whether the drug is going to work or not before they have a large-scale trial.
Lucinda says, at least you know you're not in a group getting a placebo.
A placebo is P-L-A-C-E-B-O is something you are given in a clinical trial that looks like a drug or it looks like medicine, but it's not really.
It's nothing that would help you or hurt you.
The reason that they use placebos in clinical trials is to test to make sure that people are not getting better for psychological reasons rather than for physical reasons.
So the placebo is given to a group of people who aren't told, of course, that it's not the real drug.
Elan says, who knows, meaning who knows whether I'm getting a placebo or not.
I hope not.
If I successfully get through this first phase, I'll get a full dose of the drug in phase two.
Phase, P-H-A-S-E, here it just means phase. stage or step or period, one part of something.
A drug trial, a drug study could have a number of different phases.
The first phase is the pilot study.
The second phase could be a large-scale trial.
The third phase could be another large-scale trial and so forth.
So phase is just a general term for period or stage or step.
A dose of a drug is an amount of medicine that you usually take at one time.
If you have a headache, the doctor might tell you to take two aspirin.
That would be your dose, two aspirin.
There's an old joke.
The doctor will tell you take two aspirin and call me in the morning if you come in and complain about something.
The idea is the doctor doesn't really want to help you and is just trying to get rid of you.
Lucinda says to Elan then you may once and for all be rid of podcaster's disease once and for all means finally conclusively, without any remaining amount.
That is not done.
Once and for all is the end of something.
Lucinda says that Elan may once and for all Be rid of podcaster's disease.
To be rid of something means to no longer have something, especially something that you don't really want or like, or that is unpleasant.
I am finally rid of my neighbor's dog.
The dog is no longer at my neighbor's house.
I am rid of the dog.
Podcaster's disease is when a person can't stop talking and they always talk like they are producing a podcast.
That is what Elan has.
Elan says no one should go through life, no one should live, sounding like a podcaster.
Personally, Elan...
I think it's the best thing that could happen to you.
You should be so lucky as to have podcaster's disease.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
You look tired.
Are you all right?
I'm fine.
It's this clinical trial I'm enrolled in.
I'm suffering from some side effects.
Are they serious?
No, they're not too bad.
I was told to expect some adverse reactions in the first weeks of the pilot study.
I guess that's why only a small group of volunteers is taking part right now.
It's so they can judge the drug's effectiveness before the pharmaceutical company does a large scale trial.
At least you know you're not in the group getting a placebo.
Then you may once and for all be rid of podcaster's disease.
No one should go through life sounding like a podcaster.
There are no side effects to listening to our wonderful scripts written by our wonderful script writer, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
