Follow the directions on your prescription label carefully, and ask your doctor or pharmacist to explain any part you do not understand. Take simvastatin at around the same time every day. The suspension is usually taken once a day in the evening on an empty stomach. The tablets are usually taken once a day in the evening. Simvastatin comes as a tablet and as a suspension to take by mouth. Lowering your blood level of cholesterol and fats with simvastatin has been shown to prevent heart disease, angina (chest pain), strokes, and heart attacks. It works by slowing the production of cholesterol in the body to decrease the amount of cholesterol that may build up on the walls of the arteries and block blood flow to the heart, brain, and other parts of the body.Īccumulation of cholesterol and fats along the walls of your arteries (a process known as atherosclerosis) decreases blood flow and, therefore, the oxygen supply to your heart, brain, and other parts of your body. Simvastatin is in a class of medications called HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins). Simvastatin may also be used to decrease the amount of cholesterol and other fatty substances in the blood in children and teenagers 10 to 17 years of age who have familial heterozygous hypercholesterolemia (an inherited condition in which cholesterol cannot be removed from the body normally). Simvastatin is also used to decrease the amount of fatty substances such as low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (''bad cholesterol'') and triglycerides in the blood and to increase the amount of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (''good cholesterol'') in the blood. Simvastatin is used together with diet, weight-loss, and exercise to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke and to decrease the chance that heart surgery will be needed in people who have heart disease or who are at risk of developing heart disease. The FDA hopes the revised language in the prescribing information will help reassure health care professionals that statins are safe to prescribe in patients who can become pregnant, and help them reassure patients with unintended statin exposure in early pregnancy or before pregnancy is recognized that the medicine is unlikely to harm the unborn baby.įor more information visit the FDA website at: and. Advise those who require a statin because of their cardiovascular risk that breastfeeding is not recommended because the medicine may pass into breast milk Discuss with patients whether they may discontinue statins temporarily while breastfeeding. Because of the chronic nature of cardiovascular disease, treatment of hyperlipidemia is not generally necessary during pregnancy. Health Care Professionals: Health care professionals should discontinue statin therapy in most pregnant patients, or they can consider the ongoing therapeutic needs of the individual patient, particularly those at very high risk for cardiovascular events during pregnancy.Patients who are at high risk of heart attack or stroke who require statins after giving birth should not breastfeed and should use alternatives such as infant formula. Your health care professional will be able to advise whether you should stop taking the medicine during pregnancy and whether you may stop your statin temporarily while breastfeeding. Patients: Patients taking statins should notify their health care professionals if they become pregnant or suspect they are pregnant.Medicines in the statin class include atorvastatin, fluvastatin, lovastatin, pitavastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin, and simvastatin. This includes patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia and those who have previously had a heart attack or stroke.īACKGROUND: Statins are a class of prescription medicines that have been used for decades to lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C or "bad") cholesterol in the blood. Because the benefits of statins may include prevention of serious or potentially fatal events in a small group of very high-risk pregnant patients, contraindicating these drugs in all pregnant women is not appropriate.įDA expects removing the contraindication will enable health care professionals and patients to make individual decisions about benefit and risk, especially for those at very high risk of heart attack or stroke. A contraindication is FDA's strongest warning and is only added when a medicine should not be used because the risk clearly outweighs any possible benefit. These changes include removing the contraindication against using these medicines in all pregnant patients. ISSUE: The FDA is requesting revisions to the information about use in pregnancy in the prescribing information of the entire class of statin medicines. AUDIENCE: Patient, Health Professional, OBGYN, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Pharmacy
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |