Behavioral changes with paranoia in an elderly woman taking atorvastatin

Conclusions: This is the first case report, to our knowledge, describing paranoia as one of the symptoms associated with statin therapy. Our report suggests an adverse reaction due to the initiation of atorvastatin via the temporal relationship between the start of atorvastatin and symptom onset, as well as termination of therapy and subsequent symptom disappearance. Use of the Naranjo adverse drug reaction probability scale to assess causality revealed a “probable” association (score, 5) for this adverse event. This report emphasizes the possibility of paranoia as a CNS adverse effect due to statin therapy. Statins are frequently used in older populations and should therefore be considered when such CNS adverse effects occur during therapy.