Study says statin drugs can raise risk of Parkinson’s
The impacts of statin drugs on other health conditions has drawn considerable attention in recent years, including studies suggesting benefits against Parkinson’s disease.
But a new Penn State University study published in the journal Movement Disorders has found that statin drugs actually were “associated with higher, not lower, Parkinson’s disease risk,” with the association more pronounced with fat-based or “lipophilic” statins that include some of the most popular brands — Lipitor, Zocor, Lescol and Livalo.
The Penn State findings run counter to current ideas that fat based statins protect neurons — the nerve cells key to brain function. The study actually determined that the statin-Parkinson’s association was most robust within the first 2½ years of treatment, “suggesting that statins may facilitate the onset” of Parkinson’s disease.
New health guidelines promoting broader use of statins — prescribed to lower cholesterol levels in the blood — have heightened the need to assess statin-drug impacts on people vulnerable to Parkinson’s disease, the study says.
Results suggest that before starting on statins, a person should discuss his or her own risk factors for cardiovascular disease with a primary care physician, with a high risk being reason enough to use fatbased statins, said Xuemei Huang, the Penn State College of Medicine professor who led the study.
She also recommended checking family history of Parkinson’s. A water-based statin such as Crestor, which showed no association with Parkinson’s, might be the better choice. “Most important is that statins, when used right, decrease the risk of heart attacks and stroke — the No. 1 killer in America,” Dr. Huangsaid.
The study also confirmed counter-intuitive findings from other studies that higher blood cholesterol levels were associated with a lower prevalence of Parkinson’s disease.
Medicare and Medicaid data weren’t used. For that reason, Dr. Huang said the brain the study didn’t involve produces its own cholesterol, people 65 and older, with hormones and important most cases occurring after fat-based cellular compounds, age 60, Dr. Huang said. so it’s unclear how Other studies have higher blood cholesterol shown that people who quit would benefit brain health. using statins, especially fatbased It’s possibie, however, that ones, had a higher fat-based statin drugs penetrate propensity to develop Parkinson’s the blood brain barrier disease, suggesting that otherwise filters that statins were protective. out harmful substances, On the contrary, the hampering the brain’s ability Penn State study concluded to generate brainhealthy that statins can unmask compounds, increasing symptoms in people with the risk of Parkinson’s. pre-Parkinson’s disease, prompting them to quit using
The study used the MarketScan the drugs. That discontinued Commercial use of the drugs was Claims and Encounters database an effect rather than a involving more than cause of Parkinson’s symptoms. 50 million patients. Results, however, were limited to Timothy A. Leichliter, a people between 40 and 65. movement-disorder neurologist at Allegheny General Hospital who was not involved in the study, said a randomized clinical trial would be necessary to more definitely determine the impact of statin drugs on Parkinson’s disease. It also involved younger patients, with Parkinson’s presenting in people 60 and older.
“Statins have benefits that really do help cholesterol,” Dr. Leichliter said. “But if a patient raises concern, I would try to change them to a different cholesterol-lowering agent. But I won’t necessarily change my global practice,” based on the study results.