This familiar scenario was drawn yet again by a new study, this time involving 650 patients who had complained of a reaction after taking a statin, the cholesterol-lowering drug.

Many said their doctor denied the drug could be causing the problem.

Forty-seven per cent of patients with muscle or cognitive problems said their doctor dismissed the possibility that their symptoms were caused by the statin - even though muscle problems are a recognised adverse reaction to the drug. The problem can progress to a rare, and fatal, condition called rhabdomyolysis unless the patient stops taking the drug.

Fifty-one per cent of participants, with peripheral neuropathy, a form of nerve pain affecting the extremities, said their doctor denied a possible connection to the statin – even though it's a recognised reaction.

Overall, 32 per cent of patients said their doctor told them there was no link between their symptoms and the drug, 39 per cent said their doctor said a link was "possible", and 29 per cent said their doctor "neither endorsed nor dismissed the possibility of symptom link to statins". In other words, not a single doctor agreed that the drug probably caused the reaction, despite the amount of research that would support such a view.

Research team leader Dr Beatrice Golomb from the University of California at San Diego commented: "Physicians seem to commonly dismiss the possibility of a connection. This seems to occur even for the best-supported adverse effects of the most widely prescribed class of drugs."

(Source: Drug Safety, 2007; 30: 669-75).