Midlife postmenopausal women who received daily treatment with estrogen showed improved oral reading and verbal memory performance, School of Medicine researchers report in the September issue of the journal Menopause.
"This is the first study to specifically examine the effect of estrogen on reading ability," says principal investigator Dr. Sally Shaywitz, professor of pediatrics and in the Yale Child Study Center.
"The study also shows that estrogen may benefit younger postmenopausal women engaged in everyday activities, such as reading," Shaywitz adds. "It should encourage physicians caring for postmenopausal women to inquire about and take seriously concerns about difficulties in reading and in memory."
The study was a randomized double blind, placebo-controlled trial in a group of 60 postmenopausal women ages 32 to 64. Participants were evaluated for oral reading, verbal memory and other cognitive skills. They were treated for two periods of 21 days each: one period with estrogen and after waiting 14 days, another period with placebo.
Shaywitz obtained data on oral reading using the Gray Oral Reading Test and on verbal memory using the Wechsler Memory Scales and the Sentence Span Test. Mood was assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory, and no significant difference was recorded between placebo- and estrogen-treated subjects. Vocabulary, attention and non-verbal memory were comparable in placebo and estrogen groups.
"In contrast to previous research examining estrogen and cognition, this study is hypothesis-driven, reflecting neurobiological, behavioral and brain imaging data,"
She and her team found that estrogen exerts positive effects on oral reading and verbal memory in midlife postmenopausal women. The new findings also suggest estrogen not only affects brain regions comprising the neural system used for word identification, but that it also influences reading performance itself.
"This should encourage a new line of investigation seeking to better understand estrogen's actions on reading and memory," Shaywitz says. "These data are also important in clarifying those areas of cognition, such as vocabulary and spatial ability not sensitive to estrogen; they indicate estrogen is not simply a panacea for a range of cognitive difficulties, but has specific effects which can be explained through its actions on phonologic processes."
Other Yale authors on the study include Dr. Frederick Naftolin, Daniel Zelterman, Karen E. Marchione, John M. Holahan, Dr. Steven F. Palter and Dr. Bennett A. Shaywitz.
-- By Karen Peart
T H I S
says Shaywitz.
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