New research contradicts past reports suggesting cholesterol-lowering drugs, called statins, can trigger short-term memory loss.

A giant study of over one million patients failed to find a link between statins and memory loss, Rutgers University reported. Limited previous research and some statin users have reported an association between statins memory loss, causing some patients to stop taking the potentially life-saving medications. Statins are extremely effective at lowering high cholesterol, which is a major risk factor for heart disease. If statins alone or not enough to reduce cholesterol to within a healthy range or if a patient cannot tolerate the drug, nonstatins are often prescribed.

In the study, more statin users reported memory loss over a 30-day period when first prescribed the drugs when compared with non-users; but the same results proved to me true for those taking nonstatin LLDs.  The study included 482,542 individuals taking statin medications and 482,543 randomly selected individuals not taking any LLDs; it also included a control group of  26,484 users of nonstatin LLDs.

"Either it means that anything that lowers cholesterol has the same effect on short-term memory, which is not scientifically credible because you're dealing with drugs with completely different structures," said Brian L. Strom, chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS) and lead study author.

The researchers said "detection bias," meaning a phenomenon in which patients prescribed a new drug are more attuned to their health and make more frequent doctor visits, could be playing a role.

"When patients are put on statins or any new drug, they're seen more often by their doctor, or they themselves are paying attention to whether anything is wrong," Strom said. "So if they have a memory problem, they're going to notice it. Even if it has nothing to do with the drug, they're going to blame it on the drug."

Other studies have shown statins have the ability to improve long-term memory, suggesting short-term memory loss associated with the drugs should not be seen as a major cause for concern.

"This is a very effective therapy, which is very safe," Strom said. "No drug is completely safe. But it has an opportunity to dramatically reduce heart disease in the country. People shouldn't steer away from the drug because of false fear of memory problems."

The findings were reported in a recent edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association-Internal Medicine.