July 18, 2007 - A recentlly completed study suggests that Zocor-- but not sister cholesterol-lowering drugs Lipitor or Mevacor -- may cut the risk of both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. It's not the first time that the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins have been linked to Alzheimer's disease. A small clinical trial in 2005 suggested that Lipitor might improve mental function in people with early Alzheimer's disease.
Both Lipitor and Zocor are in clinical trials to see whether they really do help people with Alzheimer's disease. But now there is compelling evidence that Zocor may actually prevent not only Alzheimer's disease, but Parkinson's disease, too.
The provocative new data come from Boston University researcher Benjamin Wolozin, M.D., and colleagues.
"Many people are looking at whether statins might prevent the progression of dementia in people with Alzheimer's disease," Wolozin said. "But a lot of people in the field think that if you start statin treatment at the time you already have the disease, it might be the wrong time. It might be nice to talk about how to prevent the disease." To see whether taking statins had any affect on Alzheimer's disease, Wolozin's team used the immense U.S. Veterans Affairs database, with detailed information on 4.5 million patients. Some 727,000 of these patients took Zocor, about 54,000 took Lipitor, and about 54,000 took Mevacor.
In patients over 64, those who took Zocor were up 54% less likely to get Alzheimer's disease and 49% less likely to get Parkinson's disease and were matched for patients not taking statin drugs.
Those who took Lipitor were 9% less likely to get Alzheimer's disease, a finding that was not statistically significant. Lipitor did not affect Parkinson's disease risk.
Mevacor had no effect on risk of either Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease. The study does not offer answers to the question of why Zocor seems to work better than Lipitor in preventing Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
Proof of whether statins affect risk of Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease can come only from controlled clinical trials. But as such trials would be extremely lengthy and expensive, Wolzin doubts they will be undertaken.