Word: statin
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...issues addressed in "The Prescription Gender Gap"--which questions the benefits to women of statins--merit context [March 29]. Heart disease and stroke remain the No. 1 and 3 killers of Americans, including women. Statin therapy as part of a comprehensive treatment regimen that includes lifestyle modification is highly effective for both men and women and is in part responsible for the recent 30% decline in deaths due to heart disease and stroke. It is correct that more women should be enrolled in clinical trials, side effects of any therapy are real, and not all persons receive the same degree...
...Jupiter TrialGrundy says he now has the evidence he's been waiting for. In a paper published in February in the journal Circulation, researchers analyzed data on women who took part in the Jupiter trial, a large, industry-funded study that sought to compare the effectiveness of the statin Crestor (rosuvastatin) with that of a placebo in healthy patients. The study, which ended in 2008, involved nearly 18,000 participants - including 6,801 women, more than in any previous statin trial - who had high levels of C-reactive protein, a risk factor for heart disease, but did not have high...
...nonfatal heart attack and stroke. But the only statistically significant benefits for women treated with Crestor involved less extreme end points, like hospitalization for unstable chest pain and arterial revascularization (a category of procedures that includes major surgery). To prevent one event, 36 women would need to take the statin for five years - a modest result, critics...
Judith Hsia, senior director for clinical development at AstraZeneca, which makes Crestor, says the trial was designed to measure the statin's effect on all end points together, not individual end points. "The people who had bypass surgery or stenting would not characterize that as a nonevent," says Hsia. "It's not death, but it's still substantial...
Margaret, 59, who asked that her last name be withheld, says her experience with statin side effects was harrowing. Margaret was in her early 50s and had high cholesterol and diabetes when her doctor put her on statins. Soon after, she says, she forgot how to do basic math and got lost driving to familiar places. But when she described the symptoms, she says, her doctor refused to believe they were related to the drugs. "I felt like I was going crazy," says Margaret, "but within a week or two of stopping the statins, my brain started to work again...