When I took Lipitor it caused severe joint pain. I could only walk up and down stairs like a toddler placing one foot and then the other one on the same step, holding onto the railing all the way. I would be in so much pain when I woke up in the morning it would take me about 30 minutes just to get out of bed. This pain developed gradually. When I went to the doctor, someone who was filling in for my regular doctor who was on vacation, she told me to stop the Lipitor. I thought she was just trying to get rid of me but within 2 weeks of stopping it all my join pain went away never to return. This was enough to convince me never to take a statin again. I know that this is just one anecdote but this was not a minor side effect and clearly it was common enough that this doctor recognized the cause of my problem. I had been taking the drug for over a year and the problem developed gradually so I would never have linked it to the Lipitor but clearly that was the cause.