Treatment and Response to Statins: Gender-related Differences

Title:Treatment and Response to Statins: Gender-related Differences

Volume: 24 Issue: 24

Author(s): Valeria Raparelli, Gaetano Pannitteri, Tommaso Todisco , Filippo Toriello, Laura Napoleone , Roberto Manfredini and Stefania Basili*

Affiliation:

• Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale del Policlinico 155, 00144 Rome,Italy

Keywords: Statin, cardiovascular disease, prevention, medication adherence, sex, gender.

Abstract: Response to drug administration is a primary determinant for treatment success. Sex and gender disparities play a role in determining the efficacy and safety of the most commonly used medications suggesting the need for a sex-tailored approach in prescription. Statins are a cost-effective strategy for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention. While statins are similarly effective in secondary CVD prevention, some concerns raised by conflicting data reported in primary CVD prevention clinical trials. The small representation of women in clinical trials and the fewer rates of events due to the lower female baseline CVD risk may have conditioned contradictory meta-analysis findings. Specifically, benefits outweigh disadvantages of statin therapy in women with a high CVD risk, while several doubts exist for the primary prevention of women at low-intermediate CVD risk. Furthermore, disparities between women and men in medication adherence may influence statin efficacy in CVD prevention. The sex-dependent impact of adverse side effects is one of the reasons advocated for explaining the gender gap, but it is not evidence-proved.

Cite this article as:

Raparelli Valeria, Pannitteri Gaetano, Todisco Tommaso, Toriello Filippo, Napoleone Laura, Manfredini Roberto and Basili Stefania*, Treatment and Response to Statins: Gender-related Differences, Current Medicinal Chemistry 2017; 24 (24) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/0929867324666161118094711