Unblinded ASCOT study results do not rule out that muscle symptoms are an adverse effect of statins.

Commentary on : Gupta A and ASCOT investigators. Adverse events associated with unblinded, but not with blinded, statin therapy in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial-Lipid-Lowering Arm (ASCOT-LLA): a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial and its non-randomised non-blind extension phase. Lancet 2017;389:2473–81. Several studies suggest that the low adherence rates with statin therapy are related to adverse events, particularly statin-associated muscle symptoms (SAMS).1 Rates of SAMS are found to be much higher in observational studies (10%–20%) compared with randomised controlled trials (RCTs) (1%–3%), which often find little difference in adverse events between statin and placebo groups.2 3 This study, having both blinded and unblinded phases, offers a unique perspective in looking at adverse events with statin therapy. The first trial phase was a randomised, blinded phase that included 10 180 patients aged 40–79 years with …