BMJ  2004;328:400-402 (14 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7436.400

Education and debate

Paying for statins

Nick Raithatha, general practitioner1, Richard D Smith, reader in health economics2

1 Health Centre, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, 2 Health Economics and Ethics Group School of Medicine, Health Policy and Practice, University of East Anglia

Correspondence to: N Raithatha N.Raithatha@uea.ac.uk

Should UK general practitioners be able to offer private prescriptions for statins to patients below 3% risk of heart disease?

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

Coronary heart disease is a major cause of illness in Britain, with around 100 000 deaths from 300 000 heart attacks annually.1 2 Raised cholesterol concentration is an important risk factor for coronary heart disease.3 Treatment with 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme reductase inhibitors (statins) significantly reduces cholesterol concentrations, decreasing the risk of heart attack by at least 33%4 and as much as 61% in the long term.5 Statins are relatively safe,6 and their benefit is additive to other preventive measures, such as aspirin.7 However, many people who could benefit from them are not currently receiving them, largely for economic reasons. This article explains the rationale for increasing prescribing of statins and suggests one way in which this could be afforded.

Current evidence shows that statins reduce the risk of developing coronary heart disease in people with a greater than 0.6% a year chance of developing the disease.8 However, the national service framework that . . . [Full text of this article]

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  • Franco, O. H, Peeters, A., Looman, C. W N, Bonneux, L. (2005). Cost effectiveness of statins in coronary heart disease. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 59: 927-933 [Abstract] [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

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