Persistence of Use of Lipid-Lowering Medications

Abstract

CLINICAL TRIALS have documented the clinical utility of lipid-lowering regimens in reducing cardiac morbidity and mortality in a variety of populations. However, evaluating the effectiveness of these drugs throughout the health care system requires an understanding of drug use and outcomes in actual free-living patient populations, as compared with rates seen in subjects recruited into controlled clinical trials.¹ While randomized trials are invaluable in determining the efficacy of regimens under well-controlled circumstances, by definition they include only volunteer subjects and physicians, with medication provided and monitored in a setting of considerably greater surveillance than exists in routine practice.