Statins: Doctors ignore patients’ complaints of reactions to drugs

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Statins: Doctors ignore patients' complaints of reactions to drugs

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patients-complaints-of-reactions-to-drugs.html

Does your doctor listen when you tell him that you are reacting to a

drug he's prescribed for you?

According to a new study, he probably doesn't. In fact, he rarely

believes that the drug is to blame for your real – or imagined –

reactions.

This familiar scenario was drawn yet again by a new study, this time

involving 650 patients who had complained of a reaction after taking

a statin, the cholesterol-lowering drug.

Many said their doctor denied the drug could be causing the

problem.

Forty-seven per cent of patients with muscle or cognitive problems

said their doctor dismissed the possibility that their symptoms were

caused by the statin – even though muscle problems are a recognised

adverse reaction to the drug. The problem can progress to a rare,

and fatal, condition called rhabdomyolysis unless the patient stops

taking the drug.

Fifty-one per cent of participants, with peripheral neuropathy, a

form of nerve pain affecting the extremities, said their doctor

denied a possible connection to the statin – even though it's a

recognised reaction.

Overall, 32 per cent of patients said their doctor told them there

was no link between their symptoms and the drug, 39 per cent said

their doctor said a link was " possible " , and 29 per cent said their

doctor " neither endorsed nor dismissed the possibility of symptom

link to statins " . In other words, not a single doctor agreed that

the drug probably caused the reaction, despite the amount of

research that would support such a view.

Research team leader Dr Beatrice Golomb from the University of

California at San Diego commented: " Physicians seem to commonly

dismiss the possibility of a connection. This seems to occur even

for the best-supported adverse effects of the most widely prescribed

class of drugs. "

(Source: Drug Safety, 2007; 30: 669-75).