Long-term treatment with cholesterol-lowering drugs like statins seems to be good not only for the heart but also for mental health. The results of this study are quite unexpected, since previously, vigorous cholesterol lowering was actually linked with depression and violent behaviour. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, followed a group of patients receiving statin treatment to treat high cholesterol levels. Beginning in 1994, the researchers enrolled 140 patients who were continuously prescribed statins and another 219 patients who used the drugs intermittently. They were compared with 231 people who had never been prescribed a cholesterol-lowering drug. Statins seemed to be associated with a reduced risk of anxiety, depression and hostility. They reported somewhere between a 30 to 40 percent reduction of risk. Furthermore, the researchers found, the odds of mental illness continued to decline with each additional year of statin treatment. Although this study does not demonstrate that statin use itself caused increases in positive well-being, it certainly supports that possibility. It also suggests that factors related to coronary artery disease may have rendered the patient vulnerable to negative mood and that statin reversed that process. Whatever the exact cause and effect, the study helps dispel concerns about the psychological side effects of lowering cholesterol. It was concluded that long-term use of statins among patients appeared to be associated with reduced risk of anxiety, depression, and hostility.

Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Aug 2003, Vol. 42 (4)