Preliminary observations on differing psychological effects of conjugated and esterified estrogen treatments

During a double-blind comparison of menopausal replacement therapy with est rogen alone compared with estrogen plus methyltestosterone (meT), subjects who had been on conjugated equine estrogen (CEE) said they felt better when placed on esterified estrogen (EE). We, therefore, tested whether these es trogen treatments differed in their neuropsychological effects. Subjects we re 34 healthy menopausal respondents to advertisements younger than age 66 who were on CEE at baseline. Each was randomized into the EE condition, eit her immediately after baseline or after they first took EE plus added meT f or 8 weeks. We compared neuropsychological measures between these two condi tions. Data included cognitive performance test results and symptom self-ra tings. Multivariate techniques were used to adjust for the effects of treat ment order. Compared with prior CEE treatment, EE treatment was associated with significantly improved scores on the Zung Self-Rated Depression Scale and on Switching Attention Test performance. Further investigation is warra nted to determine if different forms of estrogen replacement induce differe nt neuropsycholiogical effects.