The side effects of statins are caused by the ‘nosebo’ effect when patients get sick because they believe the pills hurt them just before they take them, the study says.
- The ‘nosebo effect’ can be experienced in up to 90% of statin side effects
- One study found that dummy pill takers reported very similar side effects
- One-fifth of people stop taking cholesterol-lowering drugs because of side effects
Patients taking statins may experience debilitating side effects as they are told to anticipate them, a UK study has found.
The ‘Nosebo Effect’ can be as high as 90 percent in the health benefits reported by those taking cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Eight million people in the UK take statins, with people believed to be ten per cent or more at risk of developing cardiovascular disease or heart attack or stroke in the coming decade.
The NHS says one in 50 people taking the drug for five years will avoid a serious cardiac event.
The study (pictured) at Hammersmith Hospital in west London included 0 patients who had previously stopped taking statins due to negative side effects.
Up to one-fifth of people stop taking potentially life-saving drugs after reporting side effects, including muscle aches, fatigue, nausea, and joint pain.
A new study has found that 90% of the reported side effects may be below the ‘nosebo effect’ – an event, as opposed to a placebo effect, in which patients experience a true negative side by thinking that a drug will have a bad effect. Effects.
The study, conducted at Hammersmith Hospital, included 60 patients who had previously stopped taking statins due to negative side effects.
Each patient was given 12 unbalanced bottles – four statins, four dummy pills and four nothing.
Every day each year patients scored from 1 to 100 of the symptoms they were experiencing, the 100 most severe.
The study found that those who do not take anything hit their symptoms as an average of eight, against those who take dummy pills who will make their symptoms an average of 15.4.
This compares the recorded results when participants took actual statins, during which they averaged 16.3 on average.
When taking real statins, taking dummy pills, the symptoms were as severe as 0%.
The apparent surge between those taking nothing and those taking inactive pills shows the ‘Nosebo Effect’, known to the British Heart Foundation as the ‘undisputed’.
Researchers at Imperial College London hope that these findings will mean that fewer people take off statins due to side effects.
Dr James Howard, a researcher at Imperial College London, told the BBC: ‘The side effects are mainly due to the action of taking the pills, not them.
‘It’s crazy when you think about it, it’s completely inconsistent for most people.’
However the ‘nosebo effect’ does not mean that people are not really in pain when they say.
Twenty-four of the 49 participants who completed the trial stopped the pills for at least one month of the trial due to unbearable side effects, with a total of 71 stoppages.
The NHS says one in 10 people suffer from mild side effects from statins, while one in 100 people experience more severe symptoms.
Of the 71 stoppages, 31 placebos occurred during the month and 40 statins occurred during the month.
Dr. Howard added: ‘Our patients were really suffering, patients are not making it’.
The Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, Prof. Sir Nilesh Samani said: ‘These results unequivocally show that statins are not responsible for many of the side effects that have affected them.
‘Decades of evidence have proven that statins save lives and they should be the first call for individuals at high risk of heart attack and stroke.’
The study will be published in the New England Journal of Medicine and will be presented at the American Heart Association conference.
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