The patients ditching statins ‘due to their painful side effects’

PAinFUL side effects from taking statins are far more common than experts thought, a study suggests.

Patients reported coming off the cholesterol-lowering drugs after experiencing debilitating muscle pain and cramps, which in some cases left them unable to carry out everyday tasks or even bed-ridden.

researchers found one in ten people who took statins suffered side effects, and 30 per cent of those said they had stopped taking them as a result, which could put them at increased risk of a heart attack or stroke.

They say this is a much larger proportion than shown by clinical trials of common statins, which suggest less than 1 per cent of patients will suffer muscle pain and weakness.

The French study, believed to be one of the first to highlight the drop- out rate, was carried out by scientists at heart units in Paris and Lille, but the main statins involved are the same as those taken by about seven million Britons. They were simvastatin, or Zocor; atorvastin, marketed as Lipitor; and rosuvastatin, or crestor. experts pointed out this is a small study of just 1,074 people and urged those who experience side effects to talk to their gP before giving up the drugs.

statins are recommended for anyone with a greater than 20 per cent chance of having a heart attack or stroke in the next decade. side effects can range from mild headaches, pins and needles and nausea, to memory loss, sleep disorders, and depression.

Muscle pain is one of the most common complaints. research suggests this is because statins block the enzyme Q10 which produces energy for the muscles.

in the study, four out of ten people who suffered side effects said continuous pain stopped them carrying out everyday tasks. The researchers cold- called more than 10,000 people, of whom nearly 3,000 had high cholesterol. Just over 1,000 took statins and 104 had muscle pain, fairly equally split between men and women, of all ages beyond 50.

The researchers said: ‘ These findings are of considerable importance as patients who experience adverse events are more likely to discontinue therapy.’

They said lower incidence of muscle pain in clinical trials may be due to such trials excluding high-risk patients, such as those with a history of pain. But they acknowledged they could not prove the muscle pain was linked to statins and had no information from the patients’ gPs.

The heart UK charity said the fact one in three people who had side effects were ditching the drugs was ‘worrying’.

Merck, sharp and Dohme, the drug firm which first developed simvastatin, said it was ‘not surprising’ the rate of symptoms in the ‘real-life’ study differed from those in controlled trials. its medical director Dr Paul robinson said: ‘Whilst in long-term trials, a third of patients on simvastatin reported muscle pains, so did a third of those on placebo.

‘Just because someone has symptoms does not mean it’s a drug-related side effect.’