Question: iyaaaa suzi;-) do scientists test whether drugs work on people? and if they do, what would they do if the drugs had a negative affect on the person? thank youuuuu! and btw; you said you were in a band, what do you play? cause i play the drums:-)

Suzi Gage answered on 14 Jun 2011:

Hi @reenie10
This is a really good question!
When a drug is first created, it’s first tested on animals, then on a few people, to make sure it doesn’t kill the animals, or harm the people. If the drugs do harm here, then all testing on them will stop.
Scientists have a method for working out whether drugs work across whole groups of people, and it’s called a randomised controlled trial. This will happen if the drug gets through the initial tests. If it looks like it’s doing harm, then the trial will stop. However, sometimes you have to weigh up a bit of harm versus a lot of good. These are known as side effects. A treatment like chemotherapy has a lot of negative effects on people – it can make them feel very sick and make their hair fall out. However, it can treat cancers, so therefore the pain is worth the gain.

I hope this answers your question!
I play keyboards and sing in my band, in fact I am playing keyboards in my profile picture! I’ve been learning the drums recently, they’re so much fun to play!!!!