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Estradiol therapy may benefit working memory in postmenopausal women
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Working memory for short-term cognitive tasks after menopause may be protected with estradiol therapy in women, according to study findings published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
“We know estrogen can modify women’s hormonal response to stress, and we wanted to test whether such modifications also altered its subsequent effects on memory,” Alexandra Ycaza Herrera, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, department of psychology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, said in a press release. “Our study suggests that estrogen treatment after menopause protects working memory needed for short-term cognitive tasks from the effects of stress.”
Ycaza Herrera and colleagues evaluated data from the Early versus Late Intervention Trial with Estradiol (ELITE) on 42 women (mean age, 66 years) randomly assigned to estradiol for a median 4.7 years (n = 21) or placebo (n = 21) to determine the effect of estradiol on cortisol response to a physical stressor, cold pressor test, and if estradiol decreases stress effects on working memory.
Participants completed one stress, cold pressor test, and one control session where they provided saliva samples, completed questionnaires and completed a working memory task.
No differences were found between the two groups for progesterone levels, demographic information, verbal intelligence, negative affect, positive affect or depression scores during the sessions.
Participants had higher stress rating difference scores during the cold pressor test task compared with the control task (P < .001). Subjective stress increased more in the estradiol group than the placebo group (P = .018). There was no effect of stress rating with timing of initiation of randomized treatment relative to menopause. Higher pain rating difference scores were also found with the cold pressor test compared with the control session.
During the cold pressor test, free cortisol levels increased significantly and cortisol levels only increased in response to the cold pressor test as revealed by a time by stress interaction.
Word recall working memory performance was decreased with the control pressor test but not the control task.
“The findings give us new insight into how estrogen after menopause affects women,” Ycaza Herrera said. “Although more research is needed, this may make estrogen therapy more attractive as a treatment for menopausal symptoms as well as a potential preventative strategy against a host of other age-related declines.” – by Amber Cox
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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