Statins could be adapted to treat depression and schizophrenia

Cholesterol-lowering statins could be repurposed to treat serious mental illness, a study suggests, although some experts have doubts.

Research involving more than 140,000 patients with conditions such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia found that when they took the cholesterol-lowering statins (an example is above), they were less likely to be hospitalised or to self-harm. Picture: Ben Stansall/AFP

Statins could be repurposed to treat serious mental illness, a study suggests. Research involving more than 140,000 patients with conditions such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia found that when they took the cholesterol-lowering drugs they were less likely to be hospitalised or to self-harm.

Experts said the findings could hail promising treatments for serious psychiatric problems.

“Given these drugs are commonly used and well-known to doctors they should be further investigated as repurposed agents for psychiatric symptoms,” said Dr Joseph Hayes, the study’s lead author, from University College London.

“Serious mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder, are associated with high levels of morbidity and are challenging to treat.”

The researchers said their findings should also boost efforts to take care of the physical problems of mental health patients. About 2 per cent of people will suffer bipolar disorder over the course of their lifetimes, and 0.7 per cent schizophrenia.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, also found similar effects for drugs designed to reduce blood pressure and regulate blood sugars.

Researchers from UCL looked at the health records of 142,691 patients in Sweden who had had serious mental illness diagnosed.

They looked at whether the patients had been prescribed statins, a type of drug called L-type calcium channel antagonists, used to reduce high blood pressure, or biguanides such as metformin, used to treat diabetes.

They then looked at whether the patients had been hospitalised for psychiatric reasons, or had a record of self-harm during periods when they were or were not taking the prescription medicines.

When patients with bipolar disorders were taking statins their chances of a psychiatric hospitalisation were 14 per cent lower and their chances of self-harming were 24 per cent lower.

When patients with schizophrenia were on statins, their chances of hospitalisation went down 25 per cent and of self-harm 32 per cent.

Researchers believe the statins may work by lowering levels of inflammation in the brain, or by improving the body’s ability to absorb antipsychotic medication. Rates of hospitalisation and self-harm were also lower when patients with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia took the blood pressure or diabetes drugs.

For patients with non-affective psychosis, only the blood pressure drugs were linked to lower rates of self-harm.

Guy Goodwin, professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford, said the findings were “practically important and theoretically very interesting”. He said: “Serendipity has served psychiatry well in the past and it appears set to do so again.”

Allan Young, professor of mood disorders at King’s College London said: “There is already evidence that statins may confer benefits to antidepressants and, lastly, there is a venerable history of medicines for ‘physical’ health disorders being successfully repurposed to treat psychiatric disorders.”

Other doctors were more cautious.

Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine, University of Glasgow, said: “Intuitively, people are more likely to take any drugs when they are in better mental health and less likely [to] when they are not - so reverse causality (whereby periods of poor mental health lead to lower drug exposure for statins, metformin and blood pressure drugs) could be a likely explanation rather than any real effects of these drugs on mental health.”

While the researchers said they had used statistical methods to take account of that as a factor, he said he remained sceptical.

Experts said the findings would need to be replicated in further trials before the drugs could be prescribed for purely psychiatric purposes.

Kat Lay is Times health correspondent.

The Times