Serum concentrations of CPK can rise to 200,000 or higher but correlate poorly with symptoms. Myopathy or myositis can reverse if therapy is discontinued. Intake of ethanol should be avoided or minimized during lovastatin therapy to reduce the risk of hepatic injury. Until more data are available, lovastatin should be used cautiously in any patient receiving warfarin. Lovastatin was extremely well tolerated in controlled clinical trials.
Adverse reactions tend to be transient and mild.
During clinical trials, lovastatin was compared to placebo, there were no significant differences in their adverse reaction profiles. Toxicity to the skeletal muscle occurs infrequently but can be a serious adverse reaction to lovastatin therapy. This toxicity appears to be reversible after discontinuation of therapy. A recently published study of lovastatin therapy in more than 3,300 women revealed that myopathy occurred too infrequently to accurately apply statistical analysis. Adverse GI effects occur with lovastatin use but are usually mild.