{"id":633072,"date":"2025-08-06T13:17:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T17:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.singlecare.com\/blog\/?p=633072"},"modified":"2025-10-16T15:17:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T19:17:14","slug":"best-statin-for-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.singlecare.com\/blog\/best-statin-for-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"Best statin for anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Statins<\/span><\/a> are a class of drugs that help lower cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke. Also called HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, statins work by reducing the production of cholesterol in the liver and by helping the body to absorb cholesterol stuck to the interior walls of blood vessels. Several FDA-approved statin medications can be prescribed for <\/span>high cholesterol<\/span><\/a>. Most of them are well-tolerated and don\u2019t typically cause side effects like anxiety. In the rare event that a statin seems to cause anxiety or panic attacks, your healthcare provider can recommend another statin or a different type of <\/span>cholesterol-lowering medication<\/span><\/a>. Statins aren\u2019t psychiatric drugs, so they don\u2019t treat anxiety in people who already experience it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Can statins cause anxiety and panic attacks?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Scientific studies have found no major connection between statins and anxiety or panic attacks, but that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not related.<\/span><\/p>\n

A study published in <\/span>Psychopharmacology<\/span><\/i> in 2022 saw a slight increase in self-reported anxiety levels among people who had just started taking simvastatin (<\/span>Zocor<\/span><\/a>). The uptick in anxiety was temporary, and the study authors suggest that simvastatin may have a similar effect on anxiety as <\/span>antidepressants<\/span><\/a>, which sometimes worsen anxiety symptoms for a short period of time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite a lack of large-scale scientific evidence, there are anecdotal reports of statin drugs causing or increasing anxiety in some individuals. \u201cEveryone\u2019s body and brain chemistry are different,\u201d says <\/span>Anoop Singh<\/span><\/a>, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist and Regional Medical Director with Mindpath Health. \u201cIn rare cases, changes in sleep, mood, or energy might occur [with statins]\u2014sometimes as a result of how the medication affects brain chemistry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Several individual cases of statins causing anxiety were documented in a <\/span>2015 report<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n