DOES ESTROGEN AID THE THINKING PROCESS?

Estrogen, the female hormone that can protect older women from brittle bones and heart disease, may also help make the mind keener and the memory sharper, a researcher says.

Though estrogen does not create sudden genius, Dr. Uriel Halbreich of the State University of New York at Buffalo said there is a clear and significant improvement in mental tests among older women who take the hormone."We showed that estrogen replacement therapy is not only good for osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease prevention, but also it can improve the cognitive function," Halbreich said Thursday.

The scientist presented a paper on his research this week at a national meeting of the American College of Neuro-psy-cho-phar-ma-col-ogy.

Dr. Lon S. Schneider, an associate professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Southern California, said Halbreich's research is consistent with other studies that have suggested estrogen helps some patients think better.

"Estrogen in general seems to be a cognitive enhancer," said Schneider. He said there have been random reports that estrogen seems to aid the memory of Alzheimer's disease patients and that one study suggested that estrogen therapy among older women lowered the risk of Alzheimer's.

Women naturally produce estrogen until menopause. An artificial version of estrogen now is often given to women after menopause because the hormone helps prevent osteoporosis, the brittle-bone disease, and lowers the risk of heart disease. This is called estrogen replacement therapy.

Halbreich said he tested 36 post-menopausal women before and after they started the estrogen therapy, giving each one a battery of tests that measured such things as memory, eye-hand coordination, reflexes and the ability to learn new information and apply it to a problem.

After therapy began, he said, there was a subtle but statistically significant increase in the mental scores of the patients.

Halbreich said that the difference may not be evident in day-to-day, routine life but that the mental improvement was clearly evident in the laboratory studies.

"The more complex the task, the more it is likely to be influenced by estrogen," said Halbreich.

He said a larger study of the intellectual effects of estrogen is being organized now.

One eventual result, he said, could be to help older women keep up with younger women.

"In many cognitive measures, post-menopausal women are not functioning as well as younger women," said Halbreich. "In these older women, estrogen makes it better."