Estrogen eases Alzheimer's symptoms.

Indications that estrogen influences cognitive abilities, particularly memory skills, have made the hormone a hot topic among those who study and treat Alzheimer's disease (SN: 2/4/95, p. 74). Reports have even suggested that estrogen supplements can prevent Alzheimer's in some postmenopausal women (SN: 9/7/96, p. 154).

Now, researchers report the first evidence that estrogen can lessen the cognitive decline of elderly women already suffering from the disease. The finding comes from a small trial, involving only a dozen women, which was led by Sanjay Asthana of the Veterans Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash.

Asthana's group treated half the women with a skin patch that delivers estrogen into the blood and gave the other women a similar patch without estrogen. The amount of hormone provided was similar to that used in estrogen replacement therapy to ward off the detrimental aspects of menopause. Within a week, the women getting estrogen showed improvement, says Asthana, while the others did not.

A battery of cognitive tests revealed that the treated women had improved memory skills and were able to concentrate more easily. The degree of cognitive improvement was positively correlated with the amount of estrogen in the blood, notes Asthana. Once the trial ended, the cognitive skills of the women getting the estrogen treatment dropped to previous levels, says Asthana.