Simvastatin and antibiotics

An elderly lady rang me today to double-check that she had done the right thing by stopping her simvastatin whilst taking a course of cefalexin.

Her logic was that she had been told in the past to stop her simvastatin whilst on a ‘different antibiotic’ (i.e. erythromycin) and has assumed that this applied to all antibiotics.

I told her that it didn’t apply to all antibiotics, to re-start her simvastatin, and that I would always tell her if she needed to stop her cholesterol drug if she got a future course of antibiotics that did interact.

It just got me thinking if there are other patients out there with the same assumptions. I always counsel patients about taking simvastatin and erythromycin together, but I’ve never stressed to these patients that they should continue taking simvastatin when they are prescribed further courses of antibiotics that don’t interact.

Has anyone else come across this?