This drug makes women stupid," Orli Etingin, vice chairman of medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital, declared at a recent luncheon discussion sponsored by Project A.L.S. to raise awareness of gender issues and the brain. Dr. Etingin, who is also founder and director of the Iris Cantor Women's Health Center in New York, told of a typical patient in her 40s, unable to concentrate or recall words. Tests found nothing amiss, but when the woman stopped taking Lipitor, the symptoms vanished. When she resumed taking Lipitor, they returned.
"I've seen this in maybe two dozen patients," Dr. Etingin said later, adding that they did better on other statins. "This is just observational, of course. We really need more studies, particularly on cognitive effects and women."
Can a drug that helps hearts be harmful to the brain?
Cognitive side effects like memory loss and fuzzy thinking aren't listed on the patient information sheet for Lipitor, the popular cholesterol-lowering drug. But some doctors are voicing concerns that in a small portion of patients, statins like Lipitor may be helping hearts but hurting minds.
I take a small dose of a statin every day, but I have found that my thinking is not as clear. After this article, I'm going to go without for 2 months and see if I notice the difference.
One of the things that is seldom if ever considered with ANY drug is how it effects cognition. The only drugs in which they consider brain effects are those specifically compounded for the brain... such as psychotropics and seizure medications. Even then, it's more like "it might make you sleepy" not "it will effect your ability to learn and remember".
We concentrate so much on taking care of that one single thing (such as cholesterol) the tendency is to forget that any drug we ingest effects the entire body, not just "the problem". Therefore, the benefits must outweigh the drawbacks. Also, there are generally many medications - if one med makes you feel terrible - complain!!! Ask the doc to try other meds and see what happens. Many docs hate this - but it's your body and you get to live with it - so you get to try other things if they are available even if it's an inconvenience to the doctor.
Posted by: Teresa at February 12, 2008 11:43 AM