SynthesisBMC medicine2012
The impact of statins on psychological wellbeing: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMC medicine, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The association of statin use with the risk of anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Statins in Depression: An Evidence-Based Overview of Mechanisms and Clinical Studies.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Statins for major depressive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.PloS one · 2021Pooled it
- Statins, mood, sleep, and physical function: a systematic review.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2014Pooled it
- Unintended effects of statins from observational studies in the general population: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC medicine · 2014 · on this mapPooled it
- The use of statins for the treatment of depression in patients with acute coronary syndrome.Translational psychiatry · 2015Trial
- Association between beta-blocker and statin use and mental health in patients following pulmonary embolism: a prospective cohort study.BMC psychology · 2026Observational
- Impact of Vitamin D Deficiency on Mental Health in University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Post-Marketing Surveillance of Statins-A Descriptive Analysis of Psychiatric Adverse Reactions in EudraVigilance.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Update on Statin Treatment in Patients with Neuropsychiatric Disorders.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Antidepressant Medication Are Overrepresented in High-Dose Statin Treatment.Frontiers in medicine · 2021Article
- Call to action regarding the vascular-bipolar link: A report from the Vascular Task Force of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders.Bipolar disorders · 2020Review
- Atorvastatin ameliorates depressive behaviors and neuroinflammatory in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice.Psychopharmacology · 2020Article
- Risk of Neuropsychiatric Adverse Effects of Lipid-Lowering Drugs: A Mendelian Randomization Study.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2018Article
- Therapeutic Strategies for Treatment of Inflammation-related Depression.Current neuropharmacology · 2018Review
- The renin-angiotensin system: a possible new target for depression.BMC medicine · 2017Review
- Do Statins Have Antidepressant Effects?CNS drugs · 2017Review
- Article
- BIDIRECTIONAL PROSPECTIVE ASSOCIATIONS OF METABOLIC SYNDROME COMPONENTS WITH DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND ANTIDEPRESSANT USE.Depression and anxiety · 2016Article
- Toward Omics-Based, Systems Biomedicine, and Path and Drug Discovery Methodologies for Depression-Inflammation Research.Molecular neurobiology · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCholesterol-lowering medications such as statins have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, which may be beneficial for treating depression and improving mood. However, evidence regarding their effects remains inconsistent, with some studies reporting links to mood disturbances. We aimed to conduct a meta-analysis to determine the impact of statins on psychological wellbeing of individuals with or without hypercholesterolemia.
methodsArticles were identified using medical, health, psychiatric and social science databases, evaluated for quality, and data were synthesized and analyzed in RevMan-5 software using a random effects model.
resultsThe 7 randomized controlled trials included in the analysis represented 2,105 participants. A test for overall effect demonstrated no statistically significant differences in psychological wellbeing between participants receiving statins or a placebo (standardized mean difference (SMD) = -0.08, 95% CI -0.29 to 0.12; P = 0.42). Sensitivity analyses were conducted to separately analyze depression (n = 5) and mood (n = 2) outcomes; statins were associated with statistically significant improvements in mood scores (SMD = -0.43, 95% CI -0.61 to -0.24).
conclusionsOur findings refute evidence of negative effects of statins on psychological outcomes, providing some support for mood-related benefits. Future studies could examine the effects of statins in depressed populations.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.