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Statins in children: What do we know and what do we need to do?

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Abstract

Children have been tested and treated for hypercholesterolemia for more than 30 years. Although most treatment regimens have been limited to dietary intervention, statin use is increasing. Statins have been used in children since 1987, but published sources have only reported on small numbers of children with severe hypercholesterolemia. The available data indicates that statins can be useful and well tolerated. New data will be available in the next few years that will lead to the wider use of these drugs. Although statin drugs have proven to be safe in the adult population, physicians will be obliged to follow pediatric patients closely when these agents are widely used in the first few years. The use of highly effective safe drugs such as statins will allow for the assessment of the best time to initiate therapy in younger populations and what benefits may be found over the long term.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatric Cardiology, University of Michigan, USA

    Donald M. Black MD

  2. The Cholesterol Treatment Center, Cincinnati, Ohio

    Donald M. Black MD

  3. Medical Research Laboratories, 2 Tesseneer, 41076, Highland Heights, KY, USA

    Donald M. Black MD

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  1. Donald M. Black MD
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Black, D.M. Statins in children: What do we know and what do we need to do?. Curr Atheroscler Rep 3, 29–34 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11883-001-0007-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11883-001-0007-x

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