INFORMATION FOR GENERAL PRACTICES

A message from the Chief Investigator, Professor Liam Smeeth

 

What is StatinWISE?

StatinWISE is a trial designed to find out whether the muscle symptoms experienced during statin use are caused by statins. The trial is coordinated by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) and is funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment Programme.

StatinWISE will recruit 200 patients who have recently stopped taking statins, or are thinking of stopping, due to muscle symptoms.  Each patient will be in the study for one year, split into six two-month treatment periods.  In each treatment period, patients will either take daily statins or placebo, but will not know which they are taking.  This is called a N-of-1 trial.

At the end of each treatment period, patients will report their muscle symptoms using a specially designed StatinWISE mobile phone app, through a website, by post, or over the phone to a member of the StatinWISE team.

At the end of the trial, patients will receive summaries of their individual results, which will help them to decide whether to continue taking statins.  The trial team will combine the results from all 200 patients to see how frequently statins are causing side effects in people who think their muscle symptoms are due to statins.

For a further summary of the trial, click here.

What are the benefits of taking part?

  • Low GP workload
  • No drug management (drugs are posted to patients by the StatinWISE team)
  • Service support and Research costs will be paid
  • Clinical Research Network Research Nurses will provide support for all study activities

Can our practice take part?

We have now reached our target number of participants and are therefore not accepting any new practices for recruitment. Thank you for your interest however!