Dementia in Older People May be Prevented by Statins

There may be a new method to prevent dementia in older people. Scientists have discovered that high doses of statins can help. A study of nearly 58,000 patients found that high potency statins had the strongest protective effects against the disease.

A class of drugs that helps lower cholesterol, statins are widely used to help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in older patients. Yet until now, they haven't been examined as a way to specifically reduce the risk of dementia.

"Previous studies had considered statin therapy to exert a beneficial effect on dementia," said Tin-Tse Lin, one of the researchers, in a news release. "But few large-scale studies have focused on the impact of statins on new-onset, non-vascular dementia in the geriatric population."

In order to better understand how statins could potentially benefit patients, the researchers examined whether or not statin use was associated with new diagnoses of dementia. Using a random sample of 1 million patients, they identified 57,669 patients aged 65 years or older who had no history of dementia in 1997 and 1998.

So what did they find? It turns out those who received the highest total equivalent doses of statins had a three-fold decrease in the risk of developing dementia. This particular finding is huge when it comes to treating patients who might develop dementia.

"It was the potency of the statins rather than their solubility (lipophilic or hydrophilic) which was a major determinant in reducing dementia," said Lin in a news release. "High potency statins such as atorvastatin and rosuvastatin showed a significant inverse association with developing dementia in a dose-response manner. Higher doses of high potency statins gave the strongest protective effects against dementia."

The findings could change the way researchers help prevent dementia. Statins could potentially be a useful tool in their arsenal, helping patients.

"To the best of our knowledge, this was the first large-scale, nation-wide study which examined the effect of different statins on new onset dementia (except vascular dementia) in an elderly population," said Lin in a news release. "We found that high doses of statins, particularly high potency statins, prevent dementia."

The findings were presented at the ESC Congress.