Which side effects are reported most for atorvastatin?

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.

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Key facts

Measure: Reports to the FDA naming atorvastatin. Written from the data below.

  • Fatigue has the highest figure, 14,619, followed by Nausea (13,086) and Diarrhea (11,803).
  • Feeling unwell has the lowest figure, 7,279, followed by Death (7,851) and Falls (8,240).
  • The highest is 2 times the lowest.

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Source and date

Source
U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) via openFDA
License
Public domain (U.S. government work); source U.S. Food and Drug Administration, openFDA
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “Which side effects are reported most for atorvastatin?” Chart. Data: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) via openFDA, https://open.fda.gov/apis/drug/event/ (data as of September 30, 2026). https://chart.ly/charts/atorvastatin-side-effects-reported (accessed November 5, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

Reported reaction Reports to the FDA naming atorvastatin
Fatigue 14,619
Nausea 13,086
Diarrhea 11,803
Shortness of breath 11,797
Type 2 diabetes mellitus 11,285
Pain 10,556
Headache 10,429
Dizziness 10,351
Muscle pain 10,091
Weakness 9,268
Joint pain 8,919
Pain in an arm or leg 8,453
Falls 8,240
Death 7,851
Feeling unwell 7,279

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