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To the Editor: Although the results of the WHIMS trial¹ may seem surprising, they are consistent with the results of previous observational studies of hormone therapy and risk of AD.

In their case-control study, Brenner et al² found no relationship between incident AD and use of hormone therapy within a 10-year interval. Similar 10-year results were reported from the UK General Practice Research Database.³ By contrast, 2 prospective studies^4-5 have suggested that lifetime hormone use (presumably including perimenopausal and early postmenopausal use) may be beneficial.

We suggested a resolution to this conflict in our recent analyses of data from the Cache County Study.⁶ We found adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of 2.12 and 2.41 for dementia among current users of hormone therapy with exposures of less than 3 and of 3 to 10 years, respectively. These values are similar to the HR of 2.05 reported in the WHIMS. However, we also . . . [Full Text of this Article]

John C. S. Breitner, MD; Peter P. Zandi, PhD
Department of Mental Hygiene
School of Hygiene and Public Health
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Md

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