Rosuvastatin improves dyslipidemia associated with antipsychotic therapy

Last Updated: 2007-01-18 13:49:24 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Rosuvastatin lowers total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and triglyceride levels significantly in schizophrenic patients with dyslipidemia on antipsychotic medication, European researchers report.

They caution that statin therapy does not appear to have much effect on other parameters of the metabolic syndrome, and therefore cardiovascular disease risk is not completely eliminated.

In a study reported in the December issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 100 schizophrenic patients with severe dyslipidemia, all of them being treated with antipsychotics, received either rosuvastatin 40 mg daily or no statin therapy -- only dietary advice -- for 3 months.

After 3 months, triglycerides, total and LDL cholesterol levels, LDL/high density (HDL) cholesterol ratio and total cholesterol/HDL ratios were all significantly decreased in the rosuvastatin group.

There were no significant changes in HDL cholesterol, body mass index, waist circumference and glucose homeostasis with rosuvastatin therapy.

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was nonsignificantly decreased in the statin group, with 7 of 52 patients no longer meeting the criteria for the syndrome. In the control group, five patients newly met the criteria for metabolic syndrome during follow-up.

"The only component of the metabolic syndrome affected by statin therapy was the serum triglyceride level," Dr. Marc De Hert of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Kortenberg, Belgium, and colleagues point out.

When switching to another antipsychotic with less risk of dyslipidemia is not possible, treatment with rosuvastatin appears to be beneficial, but Dr. De Hert and colleagues emphasize that "more complex treatment may be required for associated metabolic disorders."