Stopping anti-cholesterol drug increases heart risk
People are stopping to take statins (the anti-cholesterol drug) on their own on hearing negative stories about it thereby risking their heart health. On the other hand, a study published in The European Heart Journal, shows that discontinuation of statin treatment is leading to an increase in heart attacks and early death.
Statins are considered among the safest drugs. Prof. Børge Nordestgaard, co-author of the current study and chief physician at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, describes statins as ‘a success story in modern medicine, and currently […] the most effective way to prevent cardiovascular disease.’
Side effects do occur, particularly within the first 6 months, including muscle aches and, very rarely, rhabdomyolysis, when skeletal muscle is broken down. It appears that these side effects, or fear of them, is causing patients to discontinue their medication in the early stages.
Prof. Nordestgaard and his colleague Dr. Sune Nielsen, a senior scientist at Copenhagen University Hospital, wanted to know how negative news stories about statins affect patients’ decisions about whether to continue their medication or not.
They studied 674,900 people aged 40 and older, across the entire Danish population, who were using statins between January 1995 and December 2010. The researchers tracked them until the end of 2011.
Prof. Nordestgaard says, ‘We found that exposure to negative news stories about statins was linked to stopping statins early and explained 2% of all heart attacks and 1% of all deaths from cardiovascular disease associated with early discontinuation of statins. People who stop statins early have a 26% increased risk of a heart attack and an 18% increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease when compared to people who continue to use them.’
Although it is not certain that negative news stories cause people to stop taking statins, the findings suggest that this is likely; and the indication that early discontinuation leads to unnecessary heart attacks and deaths is of concern.
The authors stress the need to adhere to the drugs or face cardiovascular health problems like increased incidence of heart attacks.
Prof. Nordestgaard says ways must be developed to ensure that people stick to the therapy, especially in the first 6 months.
Positive news stories tend to be evidence-based, explaining how statins can prevent heart disease and early death, while negative news stories tend to focus on relatively rare and moderate side effects.
If there were no negative statin-related news stories, 1.3% of the population would continue to take their medications, the authors conclude.
