Adverse effects of statins-The BMJ and authors withdraw statements that adverse events occur in 18-20% of patients

摘要

In October last year we published an article by John Abramson and colleagues that questioned the evidence behind new proposals to extend the routine use of statins to people at low risk of cardiovascular disease. Abramson and colleagues set out to re-analyse data from the Cholesterol Treatment Tri-alists' (CTT) Collaboration. Their contention was that the benefits of statins in low risk people were less than has been claimed and the risks greater. In their conclusion and in a summary box they said that side effects of statins occur in 18-20% of people. This figure was repeated in another article published in the same week in The BMJ by Aseem Malhotra. The BMJ and the authors of both these articles have now been made aware that this figure is incorrect, and corrections have been published withdrawing these statements. The corrections explain that although the 18-20% figure was based on statements in the referenced observational study by Zhang and colleagues-which said that "the rate of reported statin-related events to statins was nearly 18%," The BMJ articles did not reflect necessary caveats and did not take sufficient account of the uncontrolled nature of Zhang and colleagues' data.