Research
Ditching Primary Prevention Statins in Old Age? Technically 'Safe' With Caveats
The Brief
- In the STREAM randomized trial, long-time statin users over age 70 were arguably fine stopping primary prevention therapy.
- The results hardly boded well for longer-term cardiovascular safety after stopping.
- Stopping statins showed no upside in quality of life.
Why it matters
Older adults on primary prevention statins may be able to stop, but the trial points to cardiovascular caveats that clinicians need to weigh before deprescribing.
Who’s affected
- Physicians managing older adults on primary prevention statins
- #statins
- #primary-prevention
- #cardiovascular
- #deprescribing
- #older-adults
(MedPage Today) -- Long-time statin users over age 70 were arguably fine stopping therapy in the STREAM randomized trial, but the results hardly boded well for longer-term cardiovascular safety, and there was no upside in quality of life. A strategy...