BMJ 2008;336:174 (26 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.39465.473368.3A
Letters
The treatment paradox
Most get nothing
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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.
- Spence D. The treatment paradox. BMJ 2008;336:100. (12 January.) doi:10.1136/bmj.39454.622824.94
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