Debate on statins for women

LONDON, May 10 (UPI) -- A debate in Britain about whether statins actually protect women from heart disease is heating up.

General practitioner Malcolm Kendrick said that, because none of the large prevention trials has shown a reduction in overall mortality for women with coronary artery disease taking statins to prevent a heart attack, and one study suggested that the drugs may increase mortality for women, there are important questions about whether women should be given statins at all.

In response to Kendrick's letter in the British Medical Journal, Scott Grundy of the University of Texas said that it is accepted that both men and women with established cardiovascular disease are at high risk for a heart attack and should get intensive cholesterol-lowering therapy.

The question for him arises when women without established cardiovascular disease but other moderately high-risk factors are considered. He notes that trials of moderate-risk men and women have shown overall risk reduction from cholesterol-lowering therapy, but not enough women were included to produce definitive results.

He said that, until a large-scale clinical trial to test the efficacy of cholesterol-lowering therapy in moderately high-risk women is performed, statins should not be given to low-risk women but should not be ruled out for those at moderate and moderately high risk.