Using ClinicalTrials.gov

ClinicalTrials.gov is the database; it contains virtually every clinical trial being done anywhere.  A clinical trial is a study of the use of drugs, devices, or procedures with human beings to improve human health, so if you want to know about studies being done now, this is the place to go.  Researchers in the US are required by law to describe most trials here; many researchers elsewhere do, too, since US medical journals won't publish their results unless the trial is listed here.  And anybody in the world can search this database.

(In fact, completed studies going back as far as 2007 are here, too, so there is a wealth of information available at your fingertips.)

Here's the basic search screen:

PWP and their families are often interested in finding studies to participate in.  You can pick studies that are recruiting (that is looking for people to participate), or not yet recruiting (but will be in future), Parkinson Disease (notice they've dropped the 's), and once you pick the country, it will let you pick a city and how far you're willing to travel from there.  Here's an example.  I searched for trials that are recruiting, about PD, in the US, and within 50 miles of New Haven CT.  The search box looks like this:

The list of results starts like this:

and if I click on one of the studies that interests me, I can find out much more.  The link for information about who to contact is highlighted in the example below.  

ClinicalTrials.gov publishes a great deal of information, including how to search, how to use search results, and how to read a study record (which is what you would use to find out more about this Phase 3 study example).

For definitions of some of the unfamiliar terminology, see the Fox Trial Finder website. 

One very important warning:  while this is a government database, the US government does not check studies for safety, or even that they are real clinical trials.  This means you need to ask a lot of questions about safety of both the drug/device/procedure, and any testing being done to monitor the trial. This also means you need to watch out for the slimy businesses that use ClinicalTrials.gov as advertising for their unproven and dangerous products.  Instead of testing their experimental products on you for free (a real clinical trial), they want thousands of your dollars (run!)  

For example, stem cells.  The real stem cell clinical trials accept a very small number of participants and take years to see results; the procedure requires brain surgery, and new neurons take years to grow from implanted stem cells.  The fake "trials" use unproven technology, accept any adult in the "trial," claim miracles, and don't even have a good track record with basic sanitation - but they want your money.  As I said: grab your wallet and run.