BATON ROUGE — Hi there everyone - it's me, Sarah Lawrence. That name may or may not be familiar to you, as I'm one of the people who works at WBRZ and writes articles on its website fairly frequently, but I come to you today not as a journalist - well, maybe just a little bit of one - but as a person sharing an experience. 

This past spring, I finished a 6-month long study with Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and I wanted to elaborate on the process for anyone who may not be aware of this resource in the capital region, or for anyone who knows about it but doesn't know how to get involved. 

PBRC, for those who don't know, is a local research facility that tests drugs and runs studies primarily focused on weight loss and obesity prevention. Perhaps what will be most interesting to those interested is that there is ample financial compensation for people who participate.

In the summer of 2024, a friend of mine sent me a link to a study PBRF was running called CONTOUR. They would be testing a weight loss drug similar to Ozempic before it hits the market for consumers. Dropping weight has been a long-time goal of mine, and previous attempts using fad diets or even just plain old exercise never seemed to work for me as my metabolism is abysmal and in the past I struggled with discipline. The opportunity to try "the shot" couldn't have been more welcomed. 

"But wait, Sarah," I can hear you cry. "You trusted them to inject you with an untested drug?"

Yes! The drugs they use at Pennington are safe for human use. The point of the studies at the facility are to see how exactly they work, but the Food and Drug Administration has already declared them safe for use. 

I put in some information at their study application list, such as my activeness level, my BMI, my regular diet and so on. I received a call a couple of weeks later saying researchers had accepted my application and that I would be welcomed into the study. 

From there, I had a physical scheduled at the facility where they tested me for the whole kit and caboodle: EKG, blood pressure, blood work, drug screening and what felt like a dozen other things. Everything on my chart looked good so we started looking toward inpatient stays. 

CONTOUR had a total of four inpatient stays: two before I started the medication and two after. I spent 12 nights between all of them having essentially a sleepover at the facility with all my meals provided. While it got a bit lonely sometimes, I had some great time to myself working on art projects and listening to music. 

After my first two inpatient stays, now started the difficult part: the medicine. Even now I don't know I still don't know whether I received the placebo or not even now, but regardless, I started receiving weekly injections and got put on a strict liquid diet. 

Now, my friends, this puts us in about November. 

"Sarah," you may ask, "how did you last with a liquid diet through Thanksgiving and Christmas?"

With a lot of discipline, and the promise of the aforementioned financial compensation. 

Over the course of approximately five months, I lost an astounding 40 pounds with the help of, if not just the medication, a strict diet being maintained with the help of the dieticians through the facility. The staff there always made me feel super-supported with every weekly visit and seeing them excited about my progress made me even more so. 

In February I wrapped up the study with my last two inpatient visits and a final check-in on March 11, at which I received a free T-shirt - perhaps the greatest prize of all for a 24-year-old.

So, to recap: I participated in a local study at no cost to me, lost a bunch of weight doing it, got paid a very comfortable amount to do it, helped progress biomedical research and at the end? I received a pretty cool shirt. 

The staff at PBRF answered any questions I had and always made me feel welcomed and, again, supported. They made the entire process super easy and always helped if there was something I was unsure about. I also had access to a dietitian who gave me ample resources to maintain my weight loss once I was off the shot. I knew how many calories I really needed each day, and the amount of weight I lost gave me such a sense of accomplishment that I was motivated to keep as much of the weight off as I could. 

You can look at which studies are looking for participants at the list here. PBRF is always looking for volunteers for a slew of research studies and trust me - I will be back for another study as soon as I can be!

Click here to read more about how potential funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health could affect programs and trials like this at Pennington.