A 72 year old women developed nightmares five days after taking atorvastatin for hypercholesterolaemia, reports Smak Gregoor (p 950). The nightmares occurred every night for two and a half weeks and stopped when atorvastatin was discontinued. A rechallenge prompted further nightmares, which again stopped when treatment was discontinued. A link between simvastatin and nightmares has previously been reported but this seems to be the first case of nightmares associated with atorvastatin. The mechanism, the author says, may be a direct effect on the central nervous system, or a pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic interaction.
Figure 1.
Credit: CHARLES WALKER/TOPFOTO