Observational studyBiological psychiatry2022
Associations Between Statin Use and Negative Affective Bias During COVID-19: An Observational, Longitudinal UK Study Investigating Depression Vulnerability.
Observational study in Biological psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of 28-day simvastatin administration on emotional processing, reward learning, working memory, and salivary cortisol in healthy participants at-risk for depression: OxSTEP, an online experimental medicine trial.Psychological medicine · 2025Trial
- Observational
- Daily high doses of atorvastatin alter neuronal morphology in a juvenile songbird model.PloS one · 2025Article
- Real-world outcomes of concomitant antidepressant and statin use in primary care patients with depression: a population-based cohort study.BMC medicine · 2023Article
- The pharmacological bases for repurposing statins in depression: a review of mechanistic studies.Translational psychiatry · 2023Review
- Article
- COVID-19 Infection and Risk for Neuropsychiatric Symptoms.Biological psychiatry · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThere is growing interest in the antidepressant potential of statins. We tested whether statin use is associated with cognitive markers previously found to indicate psychological vulnerability to depression within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
methodsBetween April 2020 and February 2021, we conducted an observational online study of 2043 adults in the United Kingdom. Participants completed cognitive tasks assessing processes related to depression vulnerability, including affective bias and reward processing. We also measured working memory, medication use, and current psychiatric symptoms. Using mixed analysis of covariance and regression models, we compared participants on statins alone (n = 81), antihypertensive medication alone (n = 126), both medications (n = 111), and on neither medication (n = 1725).
resultsStatin use was associated with reduced recognition of angry and fearful faces (F
conclusionsStatin use was associated with cognitive markers indicative of reduced psychological vulnerability to depression, supporting their potential use as a prophylactic treatment for depression.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.