Estrogen Replacement Therapy May Not Prevent Decline in Cognitive Functioning
Despite encouraging findings from animal studies, estrogen replacement therapy
appears not to retard a decline in cognitive functioning in postmenopausal women.
Estrogen Replacement Therapy May Not Prevent Decline
in Cognitive Functioning
WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) Oct 22 - Despite encouraging findings from animal
studies, estrogen replacement therapy appears not to retard a decline in cognitive
functioning in postmenopausal women, according to a report in the American
Journal of Epidemiology for October.
Dr. Suzana Alves de Moraes from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public
Health, Baltimore, and colleagues collected data on 2859 women 48 to 67 years
of age who participated in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.
The women had their cognitive functioning tested twice between 1990 and 1998,
using the Delayed Word Recall Test, the Digit Symbol Subtest of the Wechsler Adult
Intelligence Scale-Revised and the Word Fluency Test, according to the report.
After adjustment for confounding, no consistent change in cognition between testing
was detected according to category of menopause or use of estrogen replacement
therapy. This held true for current estrogen use and for the duration of estrogen
use, and for women of all ages, the study group found.
These findings "would seem to indicate that, at least for women in the age range
included in the study, use of estrogen replacement therapy is not associated with
age-related cognitive declines," the researchers conclude.
© 2001-2009 RxRama ---- All rights reserved.