The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7222 p633
2 November 2002

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Behavioral Neuroscience (PDF 870K)

Study in rats suggests long-term HRT in Alzheimer’s may worsen memory

Memory loss among postmenopausal women with Alzheimer's disease may be worsened if they take oestrogen therapy for long periods, say researchers from the University of Arizona.

The researchers trained female rats to perform a maze task and then tested whether removal of the rats ovaries and initiation of oestrogen therapy impaired the rats' memory.

They found that removal of the rats' ovaries was not enough to impair performance in the task.

However, the subsequent introduction of sustained oestrogen replacement therapy did impair memory performance. "A therapy designed to mimic the natural cycle of hormone fluctuation may provide a more effective therapy to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease in postmenopausal women," say the researchers.

They add that their findings, and the results of other clinical trials, suggest a pattern of beneficial effects on cognitive function after relatively short-term HRT but that this beneficial effect is attenuated, and possibly reversed, after much longer treatment regimens.

The study is published in Behavioral Neuroscience (2002;116:902).