Transient global amnesia: a side effect of "statin" treatment

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, August-Sept, 2004 by Duane Graveline

Almighty: "You have made your point that memory and amnesia are important in our daily lives but aren't you exaggerating things a bit. Can you relate even one case report where someone has been harmed because of poor memory attributable to our statins?"

Candide: "My inability to cite a specific instance at this point is the very same reason that your Watchover and Shield programs have failed to alert you promptly--lack of awareness among the general public and primary care physicians that cognitive side effects can result from statin drug use. So when a senior citizen goes on a two-day "walkabout" or, much worse, drives his car across three states in a whirlwind of wanderlust with absolutely no recollection when finally apprehended, rarely is the association made between his actions and his medications. One of our doctors, a senior primary care physician, who experienced a prolonged episode of Transient Global Amnesia six weeks after having been placed on Lipitor, reported that neither the emergency room doctors nor the attending neurologist had the slightest awareness that there might be a relationship between this drug and his amnesia. The following year this same doctor when re-challenged by Lipitor at one-half the previous dose experienced a much longer amnesia episode shortly thereafter in which he regressed nearly to his teens with absolutely no recollection for the intervening 50 years. Again, the same doctors marveled over his completely classic Transient Global Amnesia while expressing strong doubts as to any possibility of a relationship with a statin drug. Incidentally this same doctor has expressed the gravest concern as to what might have happened had he been an airline pilot or a school bus driver when his statin drug abruptly took control of his life. Later he added that had he been flying his ultra-light, a common past-time for him, loss of control would have been inevitable."

Almighty: "An interesting, even amusing anecdote of no real consequence and explainable equally by other non-drug factors, which have been around long before statin drugs and you must agree that no harm resulted. Since you are unable to cite for me even one instance of harm resulting from statin drug induced transient memory loss and confusion, I rest my case as to the inherent safety of our remarkable product."

Candide: "Even though I have no actual record of physical harm you know as well as I that physical harm may well have occurred, not once but perhaps many times. Did you not just express to me your surprise and even shock at the numbers of Baycol deaths? Is anything more harmful than death? Certainly I did not know of these deaths until the time when the unfortunate drug was abruptly removed from the market. So the credibility of your Shield and FDA's Watchover programs has been seriously compromised. You might say it is lacking. Perhaps you should tell me how much evidence of physical harm you people are sitting on, no doubt hoping it might just go away."