New medical treatments must be proven safe and effective before they can be offered to a large number of patients. New treatments are tested through clinical trials, a series of research studies using a limited number of patients. Any new type of treatment can be tested in a clinical trial. If you or a loved one has ALD or AMN, you know the heartbreaking frustration that there are not yet treatments that can stop or significantly slow the disease.

You may not know that there are hundreds of scientists and doctors working hard to discover those treatments. That discovery depends, in large part, on the willing spirit of people with ALD/AMN who volunteer to be a part of a clinical trial. People with ALD/AMN who enroll in a clinical trial are contributing to improved health care for everyone with the disease. Even when the results of a trial are negative, we learn that much more about the disease, and how to look for more promising new treatments.