Estrogen May Benefit Women with Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's Association
Wednesday, 20 November 1996

New research suggests that estrogen may improve memory and attention in postmenopausal women who have Alzheimer's disease, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

The research, by Sanjay Asthana, M.D., and colleagues at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the University of Washington, was presented at a recent meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. The study was partially funded by the Association, with a grant sponsored by the National Catholic Society of Foresters.

The results from the first controlled study of estrogen in Alzheimer's disease, compared six women with Alzheimer's who were given estrogen for two months to six women who took a placebo. The women who took estrogen showed improvements in memory and attention, which then diminished after they stopped receiving the drug. The placebo group did not show any significant changes.

"This research is very encouraging," said Zaven Khachaturian, Ph.D., director of the Association's Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute, "but we cannot yet draw any conclusions from so small a sample. These results must be confirmed in a larger group."

Previous studies have indicated that women who took estrogen after menopause had a lower risk of getting Alzheimer's than those who did not take estrogen.

According to Khachaturian, more specific information, such as dose and duration, is needed to determine the delaying effects of estrogen therapy. Questions remain about the safety of prolonged estrogen use. Scientists hope to isolate the mechanism in estrogen that has the beneficial effect so that safety may be increased, and men may benefit as well as women.

"It is even more encouraging that there are a number of very promising avenues of research into drugs for Alzheimer's disease, including estrogen, anti-inflammatories, and anti-oxidants, that indicate it might be possible to postpone the disabling symptoms of Alzheimer's by treatments that are readily available," said Khachaturian. "We look forward to moving beyond the current generation of compounds that simply address symptoms of the disease to drugs that can actually slow or stop its progression, or delay its onset."

For more information, or to contact Alzheimer's Association, see their website at: www.alz.org