017-AP-00
EMBARGOED UNTIL 1 P.M. PST, TUESDAY, FEB. 22, 2000
ESTROGEN HAS NO EFFECT ON COURSE OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE IN WOMEN, UC IRVINE STUDY FINDS
Results Reported in Journal of American Medical Association Challenge Previous Conclusions on Estrogen's Role
Irvine, Calif.-- Estrogen appears to have no effect on the course of Alzheimer's disease in older women who have been diagnosed with the disorder, a UC Irvine College of Medicine study has found.
The finding counters previous research that suggested possible benefits from giving estrogen to women who suffer from Alzheimer's.
The study is the largest and longest to date that examines the role played by estrogen in Alzheimer's disease. It appears in the Feb. 23 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Estrogen had no significant effects on the course of Alzheimer's in women with mild or moderate cases of the disorder who were given the hormone for one year, according to Ruth Mulnard, associate director of UCI's Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia and leader of the study's research team.
"Several studies have suggested that estrogen helped improve the cognitive impairment that is seen in Alzheimer's disease," Mulnard said. "But we were surprised that over the long run, patients did not benefit from estrogen--a finding that strongly suggests that estrogen treatments should not be used to treat Alzheimer's. However, our study does not rule out the possibility that estrogen can help prevent the disease or treat it successfully in its very early stages."
The study involved 120 women nationwide; participants were given either a placebo or estrogen. After a year, the women taking estrogen showed no significant differences in the course of Alzheimer's than the women who took the placebo. The researchers did see a slight improvement in the cognitive abilities of estrogen-taking women after two months, but the improvement disappeared with continued estrogen treatment.
"This slight improvement may have led some researchers to believe that estrogen was beneficial, but it did not continue as estrogen treatments and the course of the disease progressed," Mulnard said. "This leads us to suspect that female sex hormones do not have any role in Alzheimer's once the disease has progressed to a certain point."
Alzheimer's disease affects more than four million Americans. Nearly twice as many women as men have the disease. Many researchers attribute this fact to increased lifespans among women, but some researchers have suggested that the decline of estrogen production that comes from menopause may make older women more vulnerable to Alzheimer's.
Mulnard and her colleagues are now continuing their work by conducting similar studies on men to see if testosterone has any effect on the progression of Alzheimer's disease.
UCI's Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia conducts research on Alzheimer's disease and related disorders and is directed by Carl Cotman, a leading expert on Alzheimer's, and Mulnard, who holds a doctorate in nursing. The institute has conducted research on the role of Vitamin E and other chemicals in Alzheimer's disease as well as the impact of physical and mental exercise on those who suffer from the disorder. UCI researchers also are exploring how nerve cells are altered in the brain during the course of Alzheimer's and similar diseases.
Assisting Mulnard in her research were Cotman and researchers from 32 other universities across the country. The study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Aging.
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2000
Contact: Andrew Porterfield
(949) 824-3969
[email protected]
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