Trial reportBrain research2012
Administration of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) increases serum levels of androgens and estrogens but does not enhance short-term memory in post-menopausal women.
Trial report in Brain research, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Dehydroepiandrosterone for women in the peri- or postmenopausal phase.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2015Pooled it
- Effects of short-term DHEA intake on hormonal responses in young recreationally trained athletes: modulation by gender.Endocrine · 2018Trial
- Administration of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) enhances visual-spatial performance in postmenopausal women.Behavioral neuroscience · 2011Trial
- Impact of DHEA supplementation on testosterone and estradiol levels in postmenopausal women: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials assessing dose and duration effects.Diabetology & metabolic syndrome · 2025Review
- Androgens Enhance Recognition Memory and Dendritic Spine Density in the Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex of Ovariectomized Female Rats.Neuroscience · 2025Article
- The effect of hormone replacement therapy on cognition and mood.Clinical endocrinology · 2023Review
- [The role of estriol in the treatment of atrophy of the mucous membrane of the lower genitourinary tract in postmenopausal women].Problemy endokrinologii · 2022Article
- Longitudinal evaluation of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), its sulfated form and estradiol with cancer-related cognitive impairment in early-stage breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Impact of adrenal hormones, reproductive aging, and major depression on memory circuitry decline in early midlife.Brain research · 2019Article
- Dehydroepiandrosterone: a potential therapeutic agent in the treatment and rehabilitation of the traumatically injured patient.Burns & trauma · 2019Review
- Neurosteroid Actions in Memory and Neurologic/Neuropsychiatric Disorders.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2019Review
- Dehydroepiandrosterone, Its Sulfate and Cognitive Functions.Clinical practice and epidemiology in mental health : CP & EMH · 2016Article
- The relationship between dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), working memory and distraction--a behavioral and electrophysiological approach.PloS one · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The current study examines the effect of administering dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) on short-term memory. This experiment used a double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over design to explore the effects of a four week regimen of 50 mg oral DHEA on performance on the digit span, verbal span, and modified Sternberg (Oberauer) tasks. The results demonstrate that the current regimen of drug administration significantly increases serum levels of DHEA, DHEAS, testosterone and estrone and substantially alters the patterns of correlations among the serum levels of these hormones. Despite this substantial change in the hormonal milieu, DHEA administration produced no beneficial effects on cognitive performance in the digit span, verbal span, or modified Sternberg paradigm tasks. Ancillary analyses of the relation between hormone levels and cognitive performance demonstrated a strong positive correlation between DHEA levels and performance on digit span forward/backward and verbal span forward in the placebo drug condition, but not in the DHEA condition. We interpret the juxtaposition of the null results of DHEA administration and the correlation of DHEA levels and performance in the placebo condition to indicate that the referenced correlations arise because a third variable (i.e., age) is associated with both performance and DHEA levels. Additional analyses supported this hypothesis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.