The use of lipid-lowering drug therapy in children and adolescents

Atherosclerosis, the condition underlying cardiovascular disease (CVD), often begins in childhood. Therefore, strategies to prevent CVD should be implemented at an early age, especially in populations at high risk for CVD. In addition to lifestyle interventions, these strategies include pharmacological treatment of dyslipidemia, a well-established risk factor for CVD in adults. Several lipid-lowering agents have been evaluated in children; however, long-term safety and efficacy data are lacking. As in adults, statins are the preferred pharmacological agents in pediatric practice due to excellent efficacy and tolerability, with few adverse safety outcomes observed to date. Nevertheless, more studies are needed to confirm the lifelong benefit of lipid-lowering therapy initiated in childhood.