Physicians Often Ignore, Dismiss Complaints about Statins Side Effects

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Physicians Often Ignore, Dismiss Patient Complaints About Possible

Side Effects Of Statins, Survey Finds

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/80872.php

Physicians often ignore or dismiss patient complaints about possible

side effects of statins, according to a study published last week in

the journal Drug Safety, the Washington Post reports. For the study,

researchers led by Beatrice Golomb, an associate professor of

medicine at the University of California-San Diego, surveyed 650

patients, most of whom were in their early 60s and lived in the U.S.

Most participants said they complained to their physicians about

muscle pain, memory loss, numbness in their hands and feet, or other

possible side effects of statins, the study found. However,

participants said in most cases their physicians attributed the

symptoms to aging, denied their link with statins or dismissed them,

according to the study. Golomb said, " Person after person

spontaneously (told) us that their doctors told them that symptoms

like muscle pain couldn't have come from the drug. We were surprised

at how prevalent that experience was. "

She attributed the results of the study in part to a lack of

awareness about the side effects of statins. " Ad campaigns that

preserve statins' miracle drug image are more powerful than

education about side effects, " Golomb said.

Implications

The study raises concerns about prescription drug safety because,

when physicians fail to link symptoms with medications, they do not

file adverse event reports with FDA. As a result, FDA

might " underestimate the problem, and other doctors and patients may

assume the drug is safer than it is, " the Post reports.

Jerry Avorn -- a Harvard Medical School professor and author of the

book " Powerful Medicines: The Benefits, Risks and Costs of

Prescription Drugs " -- said that " there is horrendous underreporting

of side effects, " adding that 90% to 99% of " serious side effects

are not reported by doctors. "

The study " points out that doctor reports on side effects [are] a

very unreliable means of learning about the true extent of

problems, " he said, adding, " We ought to have a (better) mechanism

for gathering information from patients. A lot of it will be noise,

but there may be important signals there as well " (Ganguli,

Washington Post, 8/28).