|
 People who want to stop taking statins because of something they
heard in the news should talk first to their doctors, “so they get a
balanced view of the benefits and harms of taking the medicine,"
said senior author Boerge Nordestgaard, of the University of
Copenhagen.
He and his colleague Sune Nielsen write in the European Heart
Journal that statins are considered to be among the safest drugs.
More than 90 percent of mild side effects, including muscle aches
and general discomfort, occur during the first six months of
treatment.
The researchers suggest that news coverage about these problems may
influence people's decision to continue or discontinue their
medication.
For the new study, they analyzed data on about 675,000 people in
Denmark aged 40 and older who started taking statins between 1995
and 2010.
People who didn't fill a second statin prescription within six
months were considered to have stopped taking their medicine early.
Overall, statin use increased from less than 1 percent of the
population in 1995 to 11 percent in 2010. But the proportion of
people who stopped taking the medicine during that time also
increased, from 6 percent to 18 percent.
Meanwhile, the number of news stories about statins - positive,
negative, or neutral - also rose, from 30 in 1995 to 400 in 2009.
Stories tended to focus on the drugs' side effects, said
Nordestgaard.
The study team found that having been exposed to negative news
stories about statins was tied to a 1.3 percent increased risk of
stopping the medication early, compared to people who would not have
seen the negative story.
Being on the drugs for a longer period of time, taking higher doses,
living in cities and being non-Danish were also tied to increased
likelihood of stopping statins early.
Exposure to positive statin news stories was tied to a 5.3 percent
lower risk of stopping the medication early - along with having a
history of heart disease and diabetes.
The researchers also found that people who stopped taking their
statins early were at a 26 percent increased risk of having a heart
attack and an 18 percent increased risk of dying of heart disease.
[to top of second column] |
Taken together, Nordestgaard said the results show that negative
news stories about statins can have serious consequences for people
who are influenced to stop taking their medication.
"You need doctors to understand when there is negative media to
explain to patients the benefits of using this medication
outweighing the negative effects they read about in the newspaper
yesterday," he said.
However, Dr. Jerry Avorn, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and
Harvard Medical School in Boston, told Reuters Health in an email
that the new study isn't convincing.
For example, he said, the analysis also found negative statin news
stories are tied to an equivalent decrease in blood pressure
medication use. Moreover, studies show that people who don't comply
with medication use are more likely to smoke, not exercise, watch
their diets and not take their other medications.
"So while it’s true that media accounts probably do contribute to
what patients believe and do about their medications overall, the
simple association suggested here is problematic," said Avorn, who
was not involved with the new study.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/21vWVY6 (PDF) European Heart Journal, online
December 2, 2015.
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
