Statins and Risk of New-Onset Diabetes Mellitus: is there a Rationale for Individualized Statin Therapy?

Statins (hydroxymethylglutaryl-coenzyme-A reductase inhibitors) are first-line agents for the management of hyperlipidemia in patients at high risk of cardiovascular (CV) events, and are the most commonly prescribed CV drugs worldwide. Although safe and generally well tolerated, there is growing evidence to suggest that statins are associated with an elevated occurrence of new-onset diabetes mellitus (DM). Recent experimental and clinical data have prompted the US Food and Drug Administration to add information to statin labels regarding the increased risk of development of type 2 DM. The main purpose of this review is to critically discuss the clinical evidence regarding the association of statin use with new-onset DM, the CV benefit/risk ratio with statins, and the rationale for individualized statin therapy.