Statin Users Suffer Preventable Heart Attacks

Ivanhoe Newswire
Thursday, December 7, 2006; 12:00 AM

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Not taking the cholesterol-lowering statin drugs the way they are prescribed may lead to a heart attack that didn't have to happen.

New research from Amsterdam reveals thousands of statin users around the world are having heart attacks -- all because they are not taking their medicine the way they are supposed to or taking a dose that is too low.

Researchers analyzed 548,084 statin prescriptions of nearly 60,000 patients. Results reveal more than half of them stopped taking the drugs within two years. And only about a third persistently took a high or intermediate dose.

Researchers calculated every year about 300 to 400 statin users in the Netherlands have an avoidable heart attack because of sub-optimal doses or discontinuing the drug. They say the results are probably similar in all of Europe and in the United States, which means 7,000 to 9,000 Europeans and 5,000 to 7,000 Americans have unnecessary heart attacks every year.

"Drugs are only really effective if they are used properly and persistently," reports lead researcher Dr. Fernie Penning-van Beest, Academic Hospital in Amsterdam. "Getting users to stay on statins and to use them persistently saves lives, and doctors must get over to patients the message that complying with treatment is essential."

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SOURCE: European Heart Journal, published online December 7, 2006