Xiangya No. 2 Hospital of Central South University, Department of Neurology, Changsha, Hunan 410011, China.
Expert Opin Pharmacother. 2013 Aug;14(11):1467-76. doi: 10.1517/14656566.2013.803067. Epub 2013 Jun 17.
Statins have been widely used in clinical practice; however, the association between statin use and depression is complex as research findings have been mixed. We know that cholesterol plays an important role in the serotonin system, so statins used to lower cholesterol may lead to the occurrence of depression.
This article reviews i) cholesterol function in the brain, ii) how low cholesterol can cause depression, iii) a brief introduction of the serotonin system and how low cholesterol can disturb it, iv) neurosteroids and how they may lead to depression, and v) some direct evidence that statins can cause depression as well as contradicting evidence. Preparation of this article included an extensive literature search of statins and depression using PubMed from 1972 to 2012.
This article shows that statins could lead to depression by lowering cholesterol and that we should draw attention to this in clinical application, especially for patients complicated with depressive symptoms or low serum cholesterol levels.
他汀类药物在临床实践中被广泛应用；然而，他汀类药物的使用与抑郁之间的关系很复杂，因为研究结果并不一致。我们知道胆固醇在血清素系统中起着重要作用，因此用于降低胆固醇的他汀类药物可能会导致抑郁的发生。
本文综述了 i）胆固醇在大脑中的功能，ii）低胆固醇如何导致抑郁，iii）简要介绍血清素系统以及低胆固醇如何干扰它，iv）神经甾体以及它们如何导致抑郁，以及 v）一些他汀类药物可以导致抑郁的直接证据以及相互矛盾的证据。本文的准备工作包括使用 PubMed 从 1972 年到 2012 年对他汀类药物和抑郁进行了广泛的文献检索。
本文表明，他汀类药物通过降低胆固醇可能导致抑郁，我们在临床应用中应注意这一点，特别是对于伴有抑郁症状或低血清胆固醇水平的患者。
