| Category | Aetiology |
| Lifestyle | |
| Alcohol excess | |
| High energy (caloric) or CHOH diet | |
| Disease or condition | |
| Obesity | Insulin resistance |
| Type 2 diabetes* | VLDL overproduction, LPL deficiency |
| Poorly controlled IDDM | Increased VLDL secretion driven by increased FFA and reduced LPL |
| Hyperuricaemia | Unknown mechanism |
| Acute pancreatitis | Decreased VLDL catabolism |
| Viral hepatitis | Decreased VLDL catabolism, impaired LPL activity |
| Hypothyroidism*† | |
| Biliary cirrhosis | Abnormal HDL due to LCAT abnormality |
| Chronic renal failure | Decreased VLDL catabolism, impaired LPL activity |
| Nephrotic syndrome† | Increased hepatic VLDL synthesis and decreased catabolism |
| Cushing syndrome | Increased hepatic VLDL synthesis and decreased catabolism via LPL and HL |
| Lipodystrophy | Reduced lipolysis |
| Glycogen storage diseases | Hepatic VLDL overproduction |
| Paraproteinaemia/MM/MG | Insulin resistance due to stress hormone release |
| SLE | Increased VLDL synthesis |
| Pregnancy | |
| Stress | |
| Infection/inflammation | |
| Ileal bypass surgery | |
| Drug‡ | |
| Amiodarone | |
| Beta blockers | |
| Bile acid sequestrants | |
| Diuretics (thiazides) | |
| Glucocorticosteroids | |
| Oestrogens | |
| Retinoids (isotretinoin, acitretin) | |
| Interferons | |
| HIV protease inhibitors and NRTI | |
| Ciclosporin | |
| Tamoxifen | |
| Antipsychotics (clozapine) |
*May cause dysbetalipoproteinaemia (type III dyslipidaemia) in the presence of homozygosity for the ε2 allele at the ApoE gene locus.
†Causes hypercholesterolaemia more commonly.
‡The effects of these drugs tends to be modest in most patients but can be very severe in susceptible patients.80
Apo, apolipoprotein; CHOH, carbohydrate; FFA, free fatty acid; HDL, high density lipoprotein; HL, hepatic lipase; IDDM, insulin dependent diabetes mellitus; LCAT, lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase; LPL, lipoprotein lipase; MG, monoclonal gammopathy; MM, multiple myeloma; NRTI, nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor; SLE, systemic lupus erythematosus; VLDL, very low density lipoprotein.