Hormone replacement therapy and longitudinal cognitive performance in postmenopausal women.

OBJECTIVE: The authors examined the impact of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on longitudinal cognitive performance (controlling for mood state) in 69 community-dwelling, postmenopausal women. METHODS: The authors conducted a 5-year follow-up of cognitive performance in 37 postmenopausal HRT users and 32 non-users. The groups did not differ with respect to age, years of education, or inter-test interval. RESULTS: No main effect of HRT was observed on any of the cognitive measures, and depressive symptomatology did not affect the relationship between HRT and cognition. CONCLUSION: Overall, our findings do not suggest that HRT affects longitudinal cognitive performance in postmenopausal, community-dwelling older women.