A Swedish study found that the use of statins, or cholesterol reducing drugs, is significantly associated with a reduction in the risk of mortality in dementia patients.
The study was Monday at the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress. It analyzed 44,920 Swedish dementia patients from the Swedish Dementia Registry between 2008 and 2015 and found users of statins had a 22 percent lower risk of all-cause death compared to matched non-users.
Statins inhibit an enzyme known as "HMG-CoA reductase" responsible for the fabrication of cholesterol in the liver, and 70 percent of the total cholesterol production in the body.
The research also demonstrated that statin is three times more effective in patients with mild dementia and seven times more likely in those with severe dementia. The protective effect of statins on survival was strong for patients younger than 75 years (27 percent reduction).
The study's lead author Bojana Petek, from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, said: "Survival in patients in dementia is variable, and previous studies have identified many factors associated with survival and risk of stroke in these patients. This is the first study to examine the effect of statins."
The study did not look at the statins' components responsible for these effects on dementia patients. But according to Dr. Sara Garcia-Ptacek from the Karolinska Institutet, "they only found an association and a decline in mortality among dementia patients."
"This is a cohort study, which means patients were not randomized to a treatment like they would be in a clinical trial. For this reason, we can only show an association, and not definitely prove that statins caused this decline in mortality."
Dementia affects around 10 million people in Europe, and the number of cases is expected to double by 2030, largely due to the aging population. The prevalence of dementia increases exponentially with age, affecting 5 percent of the population over 65, and up to 50 percent by 90 years of age.
