Duane Graveline, MD and former NASA astronaut, found out the hard way that Lipitor, the popular cholesterol-lowering drug (one of the statin drugs), can be associated with severe memory loss. Six weeks after starting on Lipitor, his wife found him in the yard of their home, wandering aimlessly after his usual walk. He did not recognize her nor would he enter the house. She got him to a neurologist’s office. During the office visit, his memory returned.

He resolved to discontinue Lipitor, as this was the only new medication he was taking and he suspected the drug as the cause of the memory loss. His medical colleagues assured him that the medication could not cause memory loss so, reluctantly, he restarted the drug at half his prior dosage. Again, six weeks later, he lost all his memory back to high school. This time, the loss lasted for twelve full hours.

Dr. Graveline contacted Dr. Beatrice Golomb at the University of California San Diego’s College of Medicine who reported she had seen several cases in her study of statin drugs.

A few days later, in response to Dr. Graveline’s appearance on a radio program, multitudes of case reports of memory dysfunction started flooding in from patients across the country.

Doctors do not seem to be aware of this dangerous side effect so they are not able to make patients or prospective patients aware of the possibility of this side effect. Prescribing information for Lipitor does not include any mention of this problem.

SOURCE: http://www.spacedoc.net/lipitor_thief_of_memory.html, Lipitor