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Press Release
Estrogen Therapy May Enhance Memory in Postmenopausal Women with Alzheimer's Disease
Release 4 p.m. (ET) Monday, August 27, 2001
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) researchers have found that higher doses of estrogen may enhance memory and attention for postmenopausal women with Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Findings from this study are published in the August 28 issue of Neurology.
Previous research by the same group of scientists indicated that women who took the most commonly employed dose of estrogen via a skin patch had improvements in memory and attention. Their latest findings provide further clinical evidence to support a cognitive benefit of estrogen for women with AD. Short-term administration of a higher dose of estrogen was found to have significant improvement in verbal memory, visual memory, and attention for postmenopausal women with AD.
"The results of this study are important as they provide additional evidence concerning the efficacy of estrogen in improving cognitive function for older women with AD", said the lead author Dr. Sanjay Asthana, MD, of the Madison VA Medical Center. Dr. Asthana, also Head of the Section of Geriatrics and Gerontology at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, conducted the research while working at the Puget Sound VA Health Care System. He also stated that "if confirmed in larger studies, the salutary effects of estrogen on cognition could benefit thousands of women afflicted with AD."
Researchers have been studying the role of estrogen in AD for several years and recently have seen that estrogen may have a protective effect on nerve cells in the brain and may somehow prevent nerve cell death. It is unknown, however, how this mechanism works in the brain and exactly how it benefits nerve cells. Although estrogen replacement therapy does not improve brain functioning in post-menopausal women who already have mild to moderate AD, it may slow the progression of the disease as well as prevent it for those without AD.
As findings from this study report evidence in support of a cognitive benefit of estrogen for women with AD, a larger study over a longer treatment duration is suggested before the therapeutic potential of estrogen replacement can be firmly established. A clinical study to determine the relationship between estrogen-induced alterations and cognitive function for subjects with AD will be important in the future in order to explore a potential mechanism underlying estrogen's beneficial effect on cognition.
Co-authors of this study include LD Baker, Ph.D., S Craft, Ph.D., FZ Stanczyk, Ph.D., RC Veith, M.D., MA Raskind, M.D., and SR Plymate, M.D. This study was supported by funds from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Ciba-Geigy Corporation.
For additional information on this study contact Scott Krueger (608) 280-7030 or Sanjay Asthana, M.D., (608) 262-8597 or sa@medicine.wisc.edu.
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