Designer Estrogen May Help Cognitive Performance In Some Women.(raloxifene)

2001 MAY 10 - (NewsRx Network) -- The designer estrogen drug raloxifene has been prescribed to millions of postmenopausal women for osteoporosis, but its effects on the aging brain are unclear.

Now a new study, led by a University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), researcher, shows that although raloxifene does not affect the cognitive performance of most women, it may help prevent decline among women older than 70 and women whose cognitive performance is declining regardless of age.

Raloxifene helped these groups of women to sustain better scores on tests of attention and verbal memory, according to Kristine Yaffe, MD, chief of geriatric psychiatry at San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and UCSF assistant professor of psychiatry, neurology and epidemiology.

The study was funded by Eli Lilly and Company, which manufactures and sells raloxifene.

Over the last several years researchers had learned that raloxifene can work very much like estrogen on some systems in the body, but have opposite or anti-estrogen effects on others, Yaffe said. For example, raloxifene, like estrogen, can strengthen bones and reduce the risk of fractures in postmenopausal women. But while estrogen suppresses the hot flashes experienced by women at menopause, raloxifene does not decrease hot flashes and may occasionally induce them in some women.

While estrogen's effect on the brain still is unclear, some studies have suggested that it can help prevent the decline in cognitive function experienced by many older women. To assess whether raloxifene might have a similar effect, Yaffe and her colleagues analyzed the cognitive data gathered during the clinical trial called Multiple Outcomes of Raloxifene Evaluation (MORE), which showed the drug has beneficial effects on bone and can help reduce the risk of breast cancer.

"In general, raloxifene didn't help cognitive function, and it didn't hurt either. And that's reassuring for women given the previous concerns that is might be acting as an anti-estrogen, causing harm to the brain," Yaffe ...