Side effects
General side effects may include:
- Constipation
- Diarrhea
- Headache
- Heartburn
- Indigestion
- Stomach pain
- Gas
- Sleep problems (insomnia)
If any of these side effects persist or cause distress, talk to your doctor. These are not all the side effects that may occur. If you experience any other unusual symptoms, talk to your doctor.
The following side effects are rare but can be serious. If any of these occur, talk to your doctor as soon as possible:
- Memory loss, forgetfulness or confusion
- Muscle problems, which in rare cases may lead to serious conditions called rhabdomyolysis and autoimmune myopathy
- Muscle pain/tenderness/weakness, especially accompanied by fever or unusual tiredness
- Kidney problems such as a change in the amount of urine
- Liver problems with symptoms such as yellow eyes/skin, dark urine, stomach/abdominal pain, persistent nausea (feeling sick) or vomiting (being sick)
- Serious allergic reaction with symptoms including rash, itching or swelling of the face/tongue/throat, severe dizziness, difficulty breathing
Contraindications
Lovastatin is contraindicated in the following cases:
- If you are pregnant. Lovastatin may harm your fetus. If you become pregnant, stop taking the medicine.
- Do not breastfeed while taking Lovastatin as it may pass into breast milk and harm the baby.
- If you are allergic to it
- If you have a liver disease
Drug interaction
Lovastatin may interfere with the following medicines: Amiodarone (Cordarone, Pacerone), Colchicine, Danazol (Danocrine), Diltiazem, Verapamil (Calan, Covera, Isoptin, Verelan), Gemfibozil (Lopid), Fenofibric acid (Fibricor, Trilipix), Fenofibrate (Antara, Fenoglide, Lipofen, Lofibra, Tricor, Triglide), Ranolazine, medicines that contain niacin (Advicor, Niaspan, Niacor, Simcor, Slo-Niacin, and others), antifungal medications such as Itraconazole (Sporanox) or Ketoconazole (Extina, Ketozole, Nizoral, Xolegal), drugs that weaken your immune system, such as steroids, cancer medicine, or medicines used to prevent organ transplant rejection, such as Cyclosporine (Gengraf, Neoral, Sandimmune), Sirolimus (Rapamune), or Tacrolimus (Prograf), antifungal medications such as Itraconazole (Sporanox) or Ketoconazole (Extina, Ketozole, Nizoral, Xolegal), HIV medications such as Atazanavir (Reyataz), Ritonavir (Norvir), lopinavir/Ritonavir (Kaletra), Saquinavir (Invirase), and others.