Women may benefit less from statins

Many studies have found that statins reduce the risk for recurring cardiac problems, but not the risk for death. Now an analysis suggests that the drugs may reduce mortality significantly only in men. For the report, which appears in Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers reviewed 11 randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled studies of statins that included 43,191 people, one-fifth of them women. For both sexes, statins were effective compared with placebos in preventing cardiovascular events and led to lower rates of coronary mortality and heart attacks. But two of the five trials that reported on “all-cause mortality” showed a reduced risk for men, while none did for women. Over all, statins did not reduce stroke in women, but were linked to a 16 percent lower risk for men. The scientists said the disparity might be explained by technical factors like less vigorous recruitment of women or a worse cardiovascular profile for those women, or by the undertreatment of women for other conditions that could contribute to disease. “Our intention is not to have women stop using statins,” said the lead author, Dr. Jose Gutierrez, a clinical instructor in neurology at Columbia. “For overall secondary prevention, statins work for women. But for two outcomes — stroke and all-cause mortality — they are not as beneficial.”