The relationship between estrogen and memory in healthy postmenopausal women and women in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease

The effects of exogenous estrogen administration on aspects of memory and cognition in women were examined in two studies. In Study 1, women receiving estrogen replacement therapy were compared to untreated women on four measures of verbal memory. Those receiving estrogen had significantly better scores on a measure of delayed memory for propositional material. In Study 2, women in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) were administered either estrogen or placebo on a double-blind basis for six months. Women given estrogen showed improvement on a measure of verbal memory and spatial attention compared to the placebo controls. The combined results of these studies provide evidence that estrogen enhances aspects of verbal memory in both healthy postmenopausal women and in postmenopausal women in the early stages of AD as measured by neuropsychological tests. These effects might be mediated by actions of estrogen on neuronal morphology and physiology in brain areas important for memory and cognition