Do the types of people that are human guinea pigs have a certain personality trait?
Dr. Tishler: We looked at 28 people, which is a smidgen of the sample, and we gave them the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the Second Edition. We found that we had at least 50 percent of those people who had a significant elevation in one or more scales, meaning that, in fact, that we have people that are not normal and not healthy psychologically. Is that a meaningful thing? We don’t think so at this point. It was kind of a small study, and that’s where people start doing research is with small studies. Are there certain personality traits that these human guinea pigs have? Dr. Tishler: Frequently, they’re a little bit more paranoid; there is certainly a higher incidence of substance abuse. Frequently these are single people — not always, but frequently they’re single people who are involved particularly in these confinement studies. People that are in studies in which there’s a blood draw as an outpatient, typically Phase II or Phase III, where they may be given a medi
