Chart assignment
Charts to read and discuss
Read each chart, then answer its questions. Every chart shows its source and date; open it for a table of the numbers and the data to download.
Chart 1 of 1 · Food and drug safety
Which side effects are reported most for atorvastatin?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Fatigue (14,619 reports), nausea and diarrhea are the reactions named most often in the reports to the FDA, as of September 2026, that list atorvastatin (Lipitor) among a patient's medicines. Muscle pain, a known statin side effect, has about 10,000, and type 2 diabetes about 11,000; statin labels note they can raise blood sugar. A report is not proof the medicine caused the problem: anyone can send one, it lists every medicine the person was taking, and the same case can be reported twice. Reports that the medicine didn't work or was used differently than labeled are left out. Don't stop a medicine without talking to a doctor.
Questions to discuss
- In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
- Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
- Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?
Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) via openFDA (Public domain (U.S. government work); source U.S. Food and Drug Administration, openFDA) · Data as of Sep 30, 2026
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