Long-Term Statin Use May Reduce Risk of Depression
posted 08/28/03
Years of treatment with statins may reduce the risk of psychological disorders, independently of the drugs' impact on serum cholesterol levels.

More than a decade ago, vigorous cholesterol lowering was linked with depression and violent behavior, Dr. Charles M. Blatt, of the Harvard School of Public Health, and associates published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology for August 20. This potential link has been a growing concern because indications for statin use may expand beyond coronary artery disease (CAD). Dr. Blatt's group conducted a prospective cohort study among patients receiving statin treatment at an outpatient cardiology clinic. Beginning in 1994, the researchers enrolled 140 patients who were continuously prescribed statins and 231 never prescribed a cholesterol-lowering drug. Another 219 subjects used the drugs intermittently.

Patients completed annual follow-up Kellner Symptom Questionnaires and were clinically evaluated for an average of 4 years (maximum 7 years).

"We saw somewhere between a 30 to 40 percent reduction of risk" for anxiety, depression and hostility, co-author Yinong Young-Xu commented in a press release.

Continuous statin use was associated with a significant reduction in odds ratios for abnormal depression scores compared with never users (0.63), abnormal anxiety scores (OR 0.69), and abnormal hostility scores (OR 0.77). The significant association remained after adjusting for baseline characteristics and clinical events during follow-up. Neither baseline serum cholesterol levels nor changes in cholesterol levels affected psychometric scores.

Furthermore, the authors note, the odds ratios of abnormal Kellner scores continued to decline with each additional year of statin usage.

"Although this study does not demonstrate that statin use itself caused increases in positive well-being, it certainly supports that possibility," Dr. C. Keith Haddock, of the University of Missouri, Kansas City, said in the press statement. "It also suggests that factors related to coronary artery disease may have rendered the patient vulnerable to negative mood and that statin reversed that process."

Source: Diabetes In Control Dot Com: Journal of American College Cardiology 2003;42:690-697.

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