Estrogen and Cognitive Functioning in Postmenopausal Women: Evidence from Clinical Studies
Barbara B. Sherwin, Ph.D.
McGill University
Department of Psychology
1205 Dr. Penfield Ave.,
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H3A 1B1
Findings from basic neuroscience have provided evidence that
estrogen has beneficial influences on neurochemical and
neuroanatomical substrates of the brain that are important
for memory. Prospective studies in surgically menopausal
women (Sherwin, 1988; Phillips & Sherwin, 1992) and
controlled observational studies of naturally menopausal
women (Kampen & Sherwin, 1994; Carlson & Sherwin, 1999)
demonstrated that estrogen repacement therapy (ERT)
maintains short and long-term verbal memory in women and
increases the capacity for new learning.Several large
epidemiological studies of postmenopausal women have also
confirmed that estrogen-use protects against aspects of
cognitive decline with aging (Kawas et al., 1997; Tang et
al., 1996; Grodstein et al., 2000).We recently found that
72 and 74 year old estrogen-users also performed better on
tests of memory compared to matched nonusers (Carlson &
Sherwin, 1999, 2000).Taken together, these findings strongly suggest that the use
suggest that the use of ERT in postmenopausal women will
protect against the deterioration in aspects of memory that
occurs with normal aging.
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