BMJ 2000;321:971-972 ( 21 October )

NOTE: This article was changed after the paper journal went to press. To read the corrected version follow the link marked "extra: Corrected version" that appears in the contents box at the top of the article.

Editorials

Statins: underused by those who would benefit

But caution is needed for young people at low risk of cardiovascular disease

papers p 983

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The United States Food and Drug Administration has recently rejected proposals by the manufacturers of lovastatin and pravastatin to make these drugs available over the counter. Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration decided that physicians should probably determine who should get the drugs as well as monitoring them for side effects. The main arguments for allowing over the counter sales were summarised in a recent conference sponsored by the industry: statins are effective, easy to take, and relatively safe, and many people who should be taking these drugs are not doing so.1

The underuse of statins is most apparent in the secondary prevention of heart disease in patients with known atherosclerotic disease, for whom there is overwhelming evidence that statins are highly beneficial. 2 3 In one recent survey, for example, only 37% of patients with recent myocardial infarction and blood cholesterol concentrations above 2 g/l had been given drugs to lower . . . [Full text of this article]
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  • Vittinghoff, E., Shlipak, M. G., Varosy, P. D., Furberg, C. D., Ireland, C. C., Khan, S. S., Blumenthal, R., Barrett-Connor, E., Hulley, S., for the Heart and Estrogen/progestin Replacement S, (2003). Risk Factors and Secondary Prevention in Women with Heart Disease: The Heart and Estrogen/progestin Replacement Study. ANN INTERN MED 138: 81-89 [Abstract] [Full text]  
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