Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Although the class of cholesterol-lowering agents called statins decrease the risk for heart attack or stroke by 25-30%, approximately 10% of individuals prescribed a statin develop muscle aches and pains termed 'statin myopathy'. To diagnose statin myopathy is difficult as often, an individual's muscle enzyme level may not be significantly elevated. Furthermore, there can be other reasons why an individual is experiencing muscle pains. Consequently, both the individual and his/her physician do not know whether it is in the best interest of the individual to continue or stop the statin. Our project focuses on testing how reliable the onset of symptoms is in relation to the start of statin therapy. We examined 5 individuals who all had symptoms of statin myopathy developing within 3 weeks of statin initiation and who did not have significant muscle enzyme elevations. Each individual randomly underwent 3 periods of active treatment (with a statin they previously had symptoms) and 3 periods of placebo treatment. Each period was 3 weeks in duration, and the individual documented his/her pain symptoms each week. Although we anticipated these patients to have a high ability to determine when they were on statin therapy, the results were indeed different. All 5 patients were unable to determine when they were on statin and in fact, their pain questionnaires/scores were not significantly different between the placebo and active periods. After discussion of the results, all 5 patients resumed statin therapy, and 80% (4 of 5) remain on statin therapy 3 months after study conclusion. Consequently, this project helped physicians and individuals to objectively determine whether a patient's symptoms were truly due to the statin. Ultimately, the project helped physicians with their management plan and patients with adherence to statins.