• About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Login
    • ObGFirst
  • Alerts
  • OB
  • 2T US Atlas
  • The Genome
  • GYN
    • GYN
    • Sexual Health
  • Primary Care
  • Your Practice
  • GrandRounds
  • My Bookshelf
  • COVID-19
About Us Contact Us Login ObGFirst
  • Alerts
  • OB
  • 2T US Atlas
  • The Genome
  • GYN
    • GYN
    • Sexual Health
  • Primary Care
  • Your Practice
  • GrandRounds
  • My Bookshelf
  • COVID-19
Grand Rounds

StatinWISE RCT Results: Do Statins Cause Muscle Pain?

image_pdfFavoriteLoadingFavorite

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:

  • Evidence connecting statin use to muscle pain is limited; however, many patients will stop their medication for this reason  
  • Herrett et al. (BMJ, 2021) investigate the effect of statins on muscle symptoms

METHODS:

  • Randomized, placebo-controlled ‘n-of-1’ trials
  • Participants
    • Patients who had stopped (within 3 years) or were considering stopping treatment with statins because of muscle symptoms
    • Exclusion: Elevated serum alanine aminotransferase (≥3 times the upper limit of normal)
  • Interventions
    • A sequence of six double blinded treatment periods (two months each) of either atorvastatin 20 mg daily or placebo
  • Study design
    • Participants rated their muscle symptoms using a visual analogue scale after each treatment period
  • Sample size
    • 90% power | type I error of 5%
    • Treatment effect: At least one full unit on the visual analogue scale
    • Planned for 200 participants (assuming 40% loss to follow-up)
  • Primary outcome
    • Muscle symptoms, on a visual analogue scale (0-10)

RESULTS:

  • 151 participants provided symptoms scores for at least one statin period and one placebo period
  • There was no difference in muscle symptom scores between the statin and placebo periods
    • Mean difference: −0.11 (95% CI, −0.36 to 0.14; P=0.40)
  • Withdrawals because of intolerable muscle symptoms
    • During a statin period: 9% (18 participants)
    • During a placebo period: 7% (13 participants)
  • Two thirds of participants that completed the trial reported restarting long term treatment with statins

CONCLUSION:

  • The majority of participants who completed the trial decided to restart treatment with statins
  • The authors conclude

The lack of effect in patients completing the trial, combined with the low number of withdrawals owing to muscle symptoms, suggests a nocebo effect among users of statins, or of high tolerance to blinded rechallenge 

Learn More – Primary Sources:

Statin treatment and muscle symptoms: series of randomised, placebo controlled n-of-1 trials

Now You Can Get Mobile-Friendly ObG Clinical Research Summaries with ObGFirst

ObGFirst® – Try It Free! »

image_pdfFavoriteLoadingFavorite
< Previous
All Grand Rounds Posts
Next >

Related ObG Topics:

Could Statins Reduce Risk for Epithelial Ovarian Cancer?
Are Metformin or Statins Associated with Increased Risk for Ovarian Cancer in Women with Type 2 Diabetes?
Does Low-Dose Aspirin Reduce Risk of First Cardiovascular Events in Individuals at Moderate Risk?

Sections

  • Alerts
  • OB
  • GYN
    • GYN
    • Sexual Health
  • 2T US Atlas
  • The Genome
  • Primary Care
  • Your Practice
  • Grand Rounds
  • My Bookshelf
  • COVID-19

Are you an
ObG Insider?

Get specially curated clinical summaries delivered to your inbox every week for free

  • Site Map/
  • © ObG Project/
  • Terms and Conditions/
  • Privacy/
  • Contact Us/
© ObG Project
SSL Certificate


  • Already an ObGFirst Member?
    Welcome back

    Log In

    Want to sign up?
    Get guideline notifications
    CME Included

    Sign Up

Sign In

Lost your password?

Sign Up for ObGFirst and Stay Ahead

  • - Professional guideline notifications
  • - Daily summary of a clinically relevant
    research paper
  • - Includes 1 hour of CME every month

ObGFirst Free Trial

Already a Member of ObGFirst®?

Please log in to ObGFirst to access the 2T US Atlas

Password Trouble?

Not an ObGFirst® Member Yet?

  • - Access 2T US Atlas
  • - Guideline notifications
  • - Daily research paper summaries
  • - And lots more!
ObGFirst Free Trial

Media - Internet

Computer System Requirements

OBG Project CME requires a modern web browser (Internet Explorer 10+, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge). Certain educational activities may require additional software to view multimedia, presentation, or printable versions of their content. These activities will be marked as such and will provide links to the required software. That software may be: Adobe Flash, Apple QuickTime, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft PowerPoint, Windows Media Player, or Real Networks Real One Player.

Disclosure of Unlabeled Use

This educational activity may contain discussion of published and/or investigational uses of agents that are not indicated by the FDA. The planners of this activity do not recommend the use of any agent outside of the labeled indications.

The opinions expressed in the educational activity are those of the faculty and do not necessarily represent the views of the planners. Please refer to the official prescribing information for each product for discussion of approved indications, contraindications, and warnings.

Disclaimer

Participants have an implied responsibility to use the newly acquired information to enhance patient outcomes and their own professional development. The information
presented in this activity is not meant to serve as a guideline for patient management. Any procedures, medications, or other courses of diagnosis or treatment discussed or suggested in this activity should not be used by clinicians without evaluation of their patient’s conditions and possible contraindications and/or dangers in use, review of any applicable manufacturer’s product information, and comparison with recommendations of other authorities.

Jointly provided by

NOT ENOUGH CME HOURS

It appears you don't have enough CME Hours to take this Post-Test. Feel free to buy additional CME hours or upgrade your current CME subscription plan

Subscribe

JOIN OBGFIRST AND GET CME/CE CREDITS

One of the benefits of an ObGFirst subscription is the ability to earn CME/CE credits from the ObG entries you read. Tap the button to learn more about ObGFirst

Learn More
Leaving ObG Website

You are now leaving the ObG website and on your way to PRIORITY at UCSF, an independent website. Therefore, we are not responsible for the content or availability of this site