Pill Guidelines

Treatment

• Each time you receive a new pill bottle, the pills could be either melatonin or placebo.
• If taking melatonin, possible changes in your sleep or mood may not occur right away. Please let us know if you experience any side effects from your pills.
• Please take your study pill every night, even if immediate benefits seem unclear.
• If you are taking melatonin, each time a new pill bottle is provided, the pills could be a different melatonin dose.
• ALWAYS take only pills from your most recent bottle of pills provided.
• NEVER borrow a pill from an older bottle of pills. Borrowing pills from any prior bottle may change the current treatment and hinder the research.

TrackCap Pill Bottles

• TrackCap bottles record when the pill bottle is opened & closed.
• TrackCap pill bottles are expensive, so please treat them carefully.
  Do not open your bottle for any reason other than to take your study pill.
  Be sure to close your bottle tightly so that it registers the closing.
• Only your study pills should be stored in the TrackCap bottle.
  Do not transfer other pills to the TrackCap bottle.
• Do not remove study pills from your TrackCap bottle to dispense your pills from another container.
  Though the bottle is bigger than some, please use only this bottle for dispensing your study pills so that we can gather the most precise pill time data.
• If the TrackCap bottle is dropped, please check for broken capsules or residue inside the bottle at your next pill time. If residue is found, contact a study coordinator immediately.
• We're interested in accuracy, not just a perfect record! Please let us know if you have any comments or questions.

Missed or Late Pills

• It is very important to take each day's pill on time.
• Need a pill reminder?
  If desired, we have alarm watches available to sound at your pill time.
• Late on taking a pill?
  Pills may only be taken up to two hours late.  If this occurs, please notify us.
  If you have passed the two hour time window, do not take the pill. Please skip the pill, and keep it in its original container. Please call us so that we can document the missed pill.
• Missed taking a pill?
  If a pill is missed entirely, do not worry about it. Please do call us, however, and let us know when the pill was missed.
  By notifying us of missed pills, we are able to explain any variation in the data that maybe related to a missed pill.
• Please do not hesitate to let us know if the number of pills is running low, if pills are lost or damaged, or if a cancellation or rescheduling occurs and more pills are needed. We will send you new pills in a timely manner to ensure that a study pill is taken everyday.

Time Zone Travel & Shift Work

• Traveling outside of the Pacific Time zone?
  Please inform us about the travel as far in advance as possible. This will allow us to make a decision about what time your pill should be taken while traveling, and to address any other travel-related matters.
  Please do not make assumptions about your pill time when traveling outside of the Pacific Time Zone. We carefully consider all circumstances involved in each new instance of time zone travel before making a decision.
  Please remember to adhere to the set pill time as closely as possible when traveling in a new time zone. If desired, we can provide an alarm watch set to the local time of the travel destination.
• Working swing or graveyard shifts?
  Please keep us informed about changes in your work schedule so that we can interpret your data most accurately.

Sample Date Rescheduling

• Need to reschedule a sampling period?
  Each TrackCap bottle you receive will have enough pills to last until your next sampling date.
  If a sample date is cancelled or rescheduled to a later date, we will send you additional pills in a separate pill bottle.
  It is very important that there are no missed pills between sampling dates.
  Because cancellations can occur at the last minute, pills may need to be sent immediately via overnight FedEx, even on the weekends.

Feedback and Correspondence

• We appreciate frequent feedback. If anything regarding your study pills seems out of the ordinary, or different from your expectations, please let us know.
• If for some reason we make a mistake, your phone call may allow us to correct this mistake as soon as possible.
  

Thanks so much and don't hesitate to call if you have any question. If you have questions after hours, the on-call Research Assistant can be reached by calling 503-494-4799 and entering the page ID code: 14542.