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Echinacea Cold Study
Call us at the FIRST sign of a cold!
The Echinacea Cold Study is enrolling participants RIGHT NOW and would like YOU to be involved in our study.
How Easy Is It?
- Fill out surveys
- Be willing to see a doctor
- Be willing to take Echinacea or a placebo
- Participants will be paid
- Open to anyone 12 years of age or older
What will you be asked to do?
- Call the Cold Study Research Assistant at 263-COLD when you first feel the signs of a cold. S/he will ask you questions about your cold and make sure you have the kind of cold we are investigating.
- If you are eligible and interested, the research assistant will set up an appointment with you to meet you at the research clinic site to enroll you in the study.
- At the first appointment, you will fill out questionnaires, be randomized to receive Echinacea, a placebo or no pills. Most participants will be asked to see a doctor for a short visit. We will also ask you to provide us with a nasal wash sample. This consists of putting 2 teaspoons of a buffered solution in the nose, then collecting the residue.
- The first clinic visit should take less than 1 hour.
- You will then take home a booklet of surveys to fill out every day for the duration of your cold. These daily surveys take about 10 minutes/day.
- Two days after your first visit, you will return to the clinic and fill out surveys and do a second nasal wash. This visit should take less than 30 minutes.
- After your cold has finished, you will set up your exit interview. This final visit/interview will take less than 30 minutes. You will get paid by check at that time.
If you have an average cold that lasts about 6 days, your time commitment for the entire study is less than 5 hours. For more information about this study, or to see if you qualify, please contact the study coordinator at 608-263-COLD (263-2653).
The Echinacea Cold Study is a 4-year project funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. This study is being conducted by researchers from the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This is a community-based study testing the herbal medicine Echinacea as a treatment for the common cold. The study will also investigate placebo effects (effects of pills that have no active ingredients) and ways that physicians interact with their patients.
The study is recruiting community members with colds, aged 12 and older, from Madison and surrounding communities through Spring 2008. Individuals who have just caught a cold should call the cold study at 608-263-COLD (263-2653).
Participants will be paid by check at the completion of their participation.
Who Are We?
We are a group of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Family Medicine working on research projects directed by Bruce Barrett, MD PhD.
