A new study examining 20 years of reports submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has found an association between amnesia and four widely used cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, including atorvastatin, the most commonly prescribed drug in America. The finding comes 14 years after the FDA first acknowledged reports of memory loss, forgetfulness, confusion, and amnesia among statin users. Yet despite millions of people taking these drugs every day, the new research has essentially been ignored by the mainstream media.

Published in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Pharmacology, the study examined reports contained in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) between 2005 and 2025. This enormous database contains information submitted to the FDA about suspected side effects involving medicines used in the United States. After removing duplicate reports, the researchers ended up with a database containing more than 18.6 million cases. From this they identified 56,401 reports involving seven different statin drugs, of which 1,108 reports referred to amnesia.

The researchers then used several established statistical methods to determine whether amnesia was being reported unusually frequently in association with particular statins. Four drugs produced significant signals across all four of the statistical tests used: atorvastatin, simvastatin, pravastatin, and lovastatin.

The strongest signal was seen with lovastatin, for which amnesia was reported almost seven times as frequently as would have been expected relative to reports involving other drugs in the database. Simvastatin and pravastatin produced signals approaching five times the background reporting rate, while the signal for atorvastatin approached three times the background rate.

These figures need to be interpreted carefully. They do not mean, for example, that taking lovastatin makes someone seven times more likely to develop amnesia. The FDA reporting system cannot determine how frequently a side effect actually occurs among people taking a specific drug. Nor can it prove that a medicine caused a reported problem.

Nevertheless, databases such as FAERS exist precisely because unusual patterns in reports can provide early warnings of possible drug-safety problems. When a particular side effect occurs disproportionately in association with a pharmaceutical, researchers describe this as a “safety signal.” Such findings can provide an important reason for further investigation.

A Concern That Goes Back Years

The possibility that statins could affect memory is not new. As far back as 2012, the FDA required changes to statin safety label information following reports of cognitive problems including memory loss, forgetfulness, amnesia, and confusion. The agency said at the time that the reported problems were generally not serious and usually disappeared after patients stopped taking the drugs.

Significantly, however, the FDA was unable at that time to identify a clear association with any particular statin. The new study is therefore noteworthy because its analysis of two decades of subsequent reports has found significant amnesia signals for four individual drugs.

Importantly, the new findings are not entirely isolated. A separate study published earlier in 2026 also analyzed the FDA reporting database and similarly found reporting signals linking statins with five of the six amnesia-related adverse events it examined.

Other research has produced different findings, however. A major analysis of 42 randomized clinical trials involving more than 150,000 participants, also published in 2026, found no overall evidence that cholesterol-lowering treatments, including statins, increased the risk of cognitive problems. The conflicting findings underline why the possible link between statins and memory problems deserves further investigation.

Millions of People Are Taking These Drugs

What makes the new study especially relevant to public health is the sheer scale on which statins are now prescribed. Atorvastatin is the most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with around 116 million prescriptions issued to almost 30 million patients in 2024 alone. Statins as a whole are taken by tens of millions of Americans, making any potential link between these drugs and memory problems an issue of considerable public health importance.

This is also why patients deserve clear information about possible side effects. People experiencing unexplained memory difficulties while taking a statin should be able to discuss their concerns with their doctor and be taken seriously. In the absence of this, public trust in the safety of medicines is inevitably undermined.

Why Has This Study Received So Little Attention?

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this story is how little attention the new research has received. Despite being published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, examining 20 years of FDA data, and involving drugs taken by millions of people, the study appears so far to have effectively been ignored by major mainstream news organizations.

This stands in striking contrast to the enormous publicity routinely given to new pharmaceutical treatments. Promising results for experimental drugs can generate international headlines long before their risks are fully understood. Moreover, even when risks are known to exist, the media sometimes plays them down. By contrast, a separate UK study published earlier this year concluding that statins do not cause the majority of conditions listed in their package leaflets, including memory loss, received prominent international media coverage.

In this respect, the new study is particularly important because cholesterol is frequently portrayed simply as a harmful substance whose levels need to be driven ever lower. In reality, however, cholesterol is an essential component of the human body. It plays important roles in cell membranes and is highly significant in the brain. Remarkably, although the brain accounts for only about 2 percent of the body’s weight, it contains around a quarter of the body’s cholesterol.

Patients Deserve the Full Picture

The new study does not prove that statins cause amnesia. What it does show is that after examining two decades of reports submitted to the FDA, researchers detected statistically significant amnesia signals involving atorvastatin, simvastatin, pravastatin, and lovastatin. Given the enormous numbers of people taking these medicines, that finding deserves serious attention.

Patients have a right to know not only about the claimed benefits of pharmaceutical treatments, but also about emerging evidence concerning their possible risks. They should also be told about lifestyle and nutritional approaches to cardiovascular health rather than being encouraged to regard lifelong drug medication as the only available strategy. Above all, science advances by investigating warning signals rather than dismissing them.

Fourteen years after the FDA first acknowledged reports of memory loss and other cognitive problems among statin users, its own adverse-event database is still producing questions about these drugs and amnesia. Regardless of whether subsequent research ultimately confirms this link, one thing is already clear: a safety signal involving medicines taken by millions of people should not pass unnoticed. Patients are entitled to hear about emerging evidence concerning risks as well as benefits. Without the full picture, the concept of informed consent becomes meaningless.

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This article was originally published on Dr. Rath Health Foundation.

Executive Director of the Dr. Rath Health Foundation and one of the coauthors of our explosive book, “The Nazi Roots of the ‘Brussels EU’”, Paul is also our expert on the Codex Alimentarius Commission and has had eye-witness experience, as an official observer delegate, at its meetings. You can find Paul on Twitter at @paulanthtaylor

He is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

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