Statins are safe and potential side-effects have been exaggerated, says review

Statins are safe and effective but their potential side-effects have been exaggerated by unreliable studies, according to a major medical review.

The cholesterol-reducing tablets, the most prescribed drugs in the UK, have been the subject of years of controversy and conflicting reports.

It is thought that around six million people take them every day but that hundreds of thousands have stopped the life-saving treatment because of fears over how safe they are.

A review of the available evidence on statins, published in The Lancet medical journal, has found that the risks of a negative reaction are far outweighed by the benefits.

Too much weight has been placed upon unreliable evidence from observational studies, while the results from randomised drugs trials, which are reliable, have not been properly acknowledged, the study stated.

The report has been released in a bid to avert an MMR-style public health scare, when there was a significant decline in the uptake of the vaccine after a report, which has since been completely discredited, linked it to autism.

Dr Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, said: “We saw in a very painful way the consequences of publishing a paper which had a huge impact on the confidence in a safe and effective vaccine.

“We have learnt lessons from that episode and those lessons need to be widely propagated – they are lessons for all journals, all scientists.”

He added: “This is the first time that all of the evidence has been brought together on both safety and benefits into a single publication.

“So this is a one-stop shop of the evidence on safety and benefits of statins. There has been nowhere where you can get all of that information in a single place.”

The review found that side-effects can include developing muscle pain, diabetes or a haemorrhagic stroke, but suggestions that statins cause other conditions, such as memory loss, cataracts, kidney injury, liver disease, sleep disturbance, aggression or erectile dysfunction, are not accurate.

Oxford University’s Professor Rory Collins, one of the authors of the review, said misleading claims about harmful side-effects was causing a “serious cost to public health”.

He added: “Our review shows that the numbers of people who avoid heart attacks and strokes by taking statin therapy are very much larger than the numbers who have side-effects with it.

“In addition, whereas most of the side-effects can be reversed with no residual effects by stopping the statin, the effects of a heart attack or stroke not being prevented are irreversible and can be devastating.”

Statins: Facts about the £2 cholesterol-lowering drug

• What are statins?
  Statins are drugs that help to lower harmful cholesterol levels in the body and help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, such as a heart attack or stroke.
• How many people take them in the UK?
  Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death in the UK and it is thought about six million people have been prescribed statin treatments.
• When are they prescribed?
  The current NHS recommendation is that you should be offered statins if you have been diagnosed with a 10% or more chance of developing heart disease over 10 years or have had a heart attack in the past.
• How do they work?
  Statins help lower the levels of harmful cholesterol in the blood and reduce how much is produced by the liver. They are usually used in combination with lifestyle measures such as eating a healthy diet low in saturated fat, exercising regularly, stopping smoking and moderating alcohol consumption.
• How much do they cost?
  The estimated cost of a daily dose of low-cost statin therapy is about £2 per month.

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