Guillain-Barre syndrome may be a serious side-effect of statin treatment

This paper was published in Muscle and Nerve 2004 Nov;30(5):663-6

Study title and authors:
Disorder resembling Guillain-Barré syndrome on initiation of statin therapy.

Rajabally YA, Varakantam V, Abbott RJ.
Department of Neurology, University Hospitals of Leicester, Royal Infirmary, Leicester LE1 5WW, United Kingdom. yusuf.rajabally@uhl-tr.nhs.uk

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15389662

This paper reports the case of a 58-year-old man with Guillain-Barre syndrome. Guillain-Barre syndrome is a serious condition of the peripheral nervous system. It occurs when the body's immune system attacks part of the nervous system.

(i) On initiation of simvastatin therapy a disorder resembling Guillain-Barre syndrome occurred in the man.
(ii) He  had experienced a similar but milder episode after starting pravastatin six months earlier.

This case suggests that Guillain-Barre syndrome may be a serious side-effect of statin treatment.