Kids and statins and side effects

In regard to your two July 14 articles [“For Kids, Statins Are but One Path” and “For Some, Statins Are the Best Remedy”]: Before we start shoveling statins down the throats of our kids, I’d like to point out a very serious side effect that I suffered at two different times from two different statins.

I’m a 58-year-old male. I was taking statins to reduce my cholesterol (which worked). After a few months on statins, I became wildly depressed and suicidal (not my normal sunny nature). As soon as I stopped taking statins, I reverted to my normal positive self.

Depression is, indeed, listed as a side effect for statins in the small print of the information sheet, implying that the numbers that this affects are negligible (I got a huge mutual response on the Internet, however, when I reported my reaction on a statin site). It’s not surprising. If one looks hard enough at a suicide victim’s life, one can usually find some non-statin event to blame it on.

If we give statins to our kids and they kill themselves, how long will it take before the alarm is sounded and those deaths stop being chalked up to “just another teen suicide”?

William Stout

Pasadena