Statins & Dementia – the evidence

Summary

* Last week's note reviewed a Korean population study, which led to headlines such as "Taking statins could slash dementia risk." The claims were not robust.

* This week's note reports findings from a basic literature review to find wider and better evidence on the topic of statins and dementia.

* Twenty articles were returned in a PubMed search for clinical trials about statins and dementia. On further inspection, 16 trials did not address the research question.

* Two papers found that statin use was not beneficial for prolonging disability-free survival or avoiding death or dementia. This was clever positioning by the pharmaceutical industry; I explain why. The other two were papers about trials in progress – intended to answer the statins and dementia research question – they have declared industry conflicts already.

* A review paper examined claims for statins being of harm for dementia alongside claims that statins could be of benefit. Application of the hierarchy of evidence principles showed that superior (clinical trial/Cochrane) evidence has found no benefit, while inferior (population study) evidence has tried to. Trial evidence has also found no proof of harm, but I explain why.