ADHD drug appears to treat cognitive difficulties related to onset of menopause

by Bruce Sylvester: Menopausal women having difficulty with time management, attention, organization, memory, and problem solving (also known as “executive functions”) appear to benefit from treatment with lisdexamfetamine, a drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Lisdexamfetamine stimulates release of dopamine, which is impaired in ADHD and other disorders characterized by executive function problems.

Researchers reported this finding on June 11, 2015 in the journal Psychopharmacology.

“Reports of cognitive decline, particularly in executive functions, are widespread among menopausal women,” said lead author, C. Neill Epperson, MD, professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and director of the Penn Center for Women’s Behavioral Wellness, both in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The investigators administered once-daily lisdexamfetamine for four weeks to 32 healthy, non-ADHD-diagnosed women between the ages of 45 and 60.

With the Brown Attention Deficit Disorder Scale, all had been diagnosed with difficulties in exercising executive functions resulting from mid-life onset of menopause

The subjects served as their own controls by being randomized to cross-over to a placebo for an additional four weeks.

The researchers reported a 41 percent overall improvement in executive functions for women while receiving lisdexamfetamine, compared to a 17 percent improvement while they were taking a placebo.

The investigators found significant improvements in four out of the five subscales during lisdexamfetamine treatment; organization and motivation for work; attention and concentration; alertness, effort, and processing speed; and working memory and accessing recall.

“Although we observed that short-term use of LDX [lisdexamfetamine ] was well tolerated and effective in several subjective and objective areas, long-term studies of menopausal women receiving LDX are needed, similar to those conducted for ADHD patients,” said Epperson. “It is also important for clinicians to confirm that a woman’s complaints of worsening memory are in the executive function domains, are temporally related to the transition to menopause, and are not indicative of some other pathological cognitive impairment before prescribing a trial of LDX.”

This study received funding from Shire Pharmaceuticals, the (US) National Institute of Mental Health, the (US) National Institute on Aging, and the (US) National Institute on Drug Abuse.