Lipid lowering agents to delay cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease?
- Correspondence to: Dr F-E de Leeuw Department of Neurology (HP326), University Medical Centre St Radboud, PO Box 9101, 6500HB Nijmegen, Netherlands; h.deleeuwneuro.umcn.nl
More work to be done before concluding that lipid lowering agents are useful in Alzheimer’s disease
There is conflicting evidence for a causal relation between cholesterol, its treatment, and the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease.1,2 Merely the finding of a reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s disease among statin users does not necessarily imply any beneficial clinical effect of cholesterol lowering in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
This gap in our understanding of the interplay between cholesterol and Alzheimer’s disease prompted Masse and colleagues3 to carry out the study on which they report in this months’ issue of the journal (see p 1624 of this issue).
Previous reports on the effect of statins on the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease have always been criticised for possible weaknesses in …
