BMJ  2008;336:174 (26 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.39465.473368.3A

Letters

The treatment paradox

Most get nothing

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

Des Spence is right when writing that most patients taking statins get no health benefit.1

In the case of statins the benefit is not to get a cerebrovascular accident or a myocardial infarction (fatal or not), the usual end points in statin clinical trials. This benefit cannot diffuse.

Therefore for every number needed to treat (NNT)+1 patients taking statins for several years, only one gets this benefit. The rest get practically nothing.

Michael Samarkos, consultant in general medicine

1 Evagelismos Hospital, Athens 10676, Greece

msamarkos@otenet.gr

Competing interests: None declared.

  1. Spence D. The treatment paradox. BMJ 2008;336:100. (12 January.) doi:10.1136/bmj.39454.622824.94[Free Full Text]

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Relevant Article

The treatment paradox
Des Spence
BMJ 2008 336: 100. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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