A new way to discuss statin drugs

A new study published last week in an open heart journal changes the conversation about how patients and doctors think about and discuss preventive therapies–such as statins. Dr. Richard Lehman may be the smartest doctor on Twitter. This is what he said: This is a game-changer https://t.co/WgGdLlodbL — Richard Lehman (@RichardLehman1) March 20, 2016 Most discussions about using statin drugs focus on a 5-10 year period. That’s not the right way to discuss these drugs. When we take a statin drug (or screen for cancer, or any other preventive intervention) we do it to live longer–not just 5-10 years. Here is a link to the (free) study. The editorial is here. Researchers from the UK used national registries to calculate death rates. They then devised a mathematical model to calculate the probability distribution of lifespan gains from statin interventions. They used the well-accepted relative (CV) benefits of statins of 20-30%. In the third part of the study, they surveyed random people in train stations, asking how they would judge potential benefit from the drugs. Before I tell you the results, let’s consider how we currently explain statin benefits. In primary prevention, the absolute benefit from a statin drug (or cancer screening) is small. How small is a matter of debate, but what opponents to these therapies rightly say is that most people who take these drugs get no benefit. (If the NNT is 50, 49 get no benefit.) The problem with that strate...
Source: Dr John M - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: blogs