Statin Side Effects Lesson 2 (Psychological, Behavioral, & Neurological Side Effects)
Hi everyone this lesson is on other side effects of statins so we’re going to talk about psychological and behavioral side effects and we’re also going to talk about some other neurological side effects from statins so this is actually part two or a continuation of my previous lesson on statin side effects so first let’s just briefly do a recap as to what statins
Are they are medications used to lower or reduce blood cholesterol levels and they all have the suffix statin so examples include a or suvastatin simvastatin and they do this they reduce blood cholesterol levels by inhibiting synthesis of cholesterol by inhibition of an enzyme called hmg coa reductase now as was talked about in my previous lesson and in this lesson
They cause a variety of mild and or severe side effects if you want to learn about the more common side effects of statin use please check out my previous lesson but a brief summary of some of those common side effects of statins include myopathy so painful aching muscles hepatitis or inflammation of the liver headaches and fatigue but there are even more common side
Effects please check out my lesson if you want more information but this lesson is on other less common side effects that may occur including psychological and behavioral side effects of statins so statins unfortunately have even more side effects one of them is renal impairment so we did talk about some kidney disease in the previous lesson but this one is more
Specifically on renal impairment so as we mentioned before statins are known to cause myopathy so disease of muscle and potentially rhabdomyolysis which is and rhabdomyolysis due to loss of myoglobin can cause kidney injury so it can lead to acute kidney injury in kidney failure now on top of that statins appear to also have a direct impact on renal functioning
To cause impairment so not all patients will have this but some will have effects on their kidneys directly from statins so they have this potential increased risk from possible other side effects like myopathy and rhabdomyolysis but they can also have direct impact or direct effects from statins on renal functioning waking is another side effect of statin use we
Talked about increased risk of type 2 diabetes in the last lesson but the weight gain may also be related to this so this related risk of type 2 diabetes can lead to elevated levels of insulin which promotes weight gain but it’s also been suggested that patients on statins may also increase their fat intake in caloric intake also leading to weight gain as well now
The next several side effects of statins come from these articles entitled effects of statins and cholesterol on patient aggression is there a connection and the other article entitled mood personality and behavior changes during treatment with statins a k series so the first one is depression so depression has been found in statin users so torvastatin simvastatin
In lovastatin use has been found to be associated with symptoms of depression in particular the symptoms that have been noted include hopelessness and joylessness and the reason for this is not clear it may be that statin use can exacerbate underlying symptoms so if a patient has underlying symptoms of depression statins may actually worsen those symptoms so the
Reason why statins may increase symptoms of depression is not known but it may exacerbate underlying symptoms now another possible side effect of statin use is anxiety so an increase in symptoms of anxiety have been noted in some case reports of patients taking statin medications so again it may be due to statins exacerbating underlying symptoms so if a patient
Has issues with anxiety already statins may worsen those symptoms so again some of these have only been found in case reports so anxiety has been found in case reports so it’s going to be a very uncommon symptom but it’s still possible that this could be related to statin use now another side effect is irritability irritability and agitation have been found to
Be neuropsychiatric side effects of statin use and with regards to some of these neuropsychiatric side effects it appears that it can occur very early on in use of statins so within days of using statins irritability can show up it can be a side effect even within a few days but again this is a very rare side effect aggression is also another related side effect
Of statins looking at case reports it does appear that aggression occurs more often in males compared to females who take statins and this can also occur very quickly after use so even within a day of use statins can cause aggression or an increase in aggression in male patients so again these come from case reports so they’re going to be quite rare but they have
Been noted in patients who use statins some other side effects of statin use include low testosterone statins are noted to be associated with lower testosterone levels and this makes sense the reason being is because statins reduce cholesterol synthesis and we need cholesterol to make testosterone so if we have lower cholesterol levels we’re going to have lower
Testosterone levels and we’re going to have lower levels of other steroid hormones as well so lower testosterone is going to be one of those side effects and that’s going to lead to many other signs and symptoms as well fatigue and decreased libido so those are some other side effects that may occur with statin use sleep disruption is also another side effect
Of statin use statins may decrease sleep quality or cause insomnia and we mentioned fatigue being a side effect in the previous lesson but sleep disruption may be the cause for this fatigue another side effect that has been noted in case reports is nightmares so it has been noted in a case report now this is just one report that a teenager who was using statins
Specifically as torvastatin had nightmares so nightmares have been noted to be likely definitively caused by statin use at least in a teenager decreased attention has also been noted in some patients who have used statins statin use may lead to decreased concentration and attention and again this appears to be a very rare side effect as it has been reported
In a case report now there are also some other neurological side effects of statin use peripheral neuropathy is one of them so peripheral neuropathy is a feeling of numbness tingling pins and needles and it often times occurs on extremities so this numbness tingling sensation on the hands or the feet so statin use may increase the risk of developing neuropathy
Upwards of 16 times higher compared to non-statin users so it can be a significant difference in the prevalence of peripheral neuropathy between statin users and non-statin users and then there is a possible future risk of developing cataracts or an increased risk for developing cataracts later on in life so there have been some studies suggesting that cataracts
May be more likely to develop in patients who have started statins but evidence is mixed so there may not be an increased risk some reports suggest that there are some reports suggest that there aren’t it appears more likely that statins do not increase the risk of cataracts as has been shown in more recent studies so i want to bring this up here because it is
Still possible and it has been noted in some studies but it looks like some of the more recent meta-analyses suggest otherwise but again i want to mention it here so if you want more information on more common side effects of statin use please check out my previous lesson on this topic and if you haven’t already please like and subscribe for more lessons like this
One thanks much for watching and i hope see you next time
Transcribed from video
Statin Side Effects Lesson 2 (Psychological, Behavioral, & Neurological Side Effects) By JJ Medicine
