Studies Suggest Medications To Increase HDL Levels May Not Benefit Patients.

On the front page of its Personal Journal section, the Wall Street Journal  (1/8, D1, Weaver, Subscription Publication) reports on the lack of benefit found in trials testing medications that raise HDL cholesterol. For instance, one NIH-funded study found that niacin did not benefit patients who were already on statins. Some researchers believe that increasing HDL levels with medications may not be as beneficial as when HDL is raised naturally. Now, given the string of studies suggesting little benefit to the approach, researchers are concerned that drugmakers may abandon future research on medications to increase HDL.