Statins in General Practice: Pocketbook

The use of statins in clinical practice has become an established part of modern medicine. They were introduced in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a new group of cholesterol-lowering drugs, but have since become agents that have an important effect in reducing not only blood lipid levels but also an individual's risk of vascular disease. The aim of this text is to place the use of statins in primary care in a clinical context and to explain how these drugs work. Pharmacology, comparative mechanisms, practical considerations, day-to-day problems and the future of statins are all explored.