Biomedical subjects

Karen E Moe

Publications and source records attributed to Karen E Moe.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Growth hormone releasing hormone improves the cognition of healthy older adults.

Declines in the activity of the somatotrophic axis have been implicated in the age-related changes observed in a number of physiological functions, including cognition. Such age-related changes may be arrested or partially reversed by hormonal supplementation. We examined the effect of 6 months treatment with daily growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH) or placebo on the cognition of a group of 89 healthy older (68.0+/-0.7) adults. GHRH resulted in improved performance on WAIS-R performance IQ (p<0.01), WAIS-R picture arrangement (p<0.01), finding A's (p<0.01), verbal sets (p<0.01) and single-dual task (p<0.04). GHRH-based improvements were independent of gender, estrogen status or baseline cognitive capacity. These results demonstrate that the age-related decline in the somatotrophic axis may be related to age-related decline in cognition. Further they indicate that supplementation of this neuro-hormonal axis may partially ameliorate such cognitive declines in healthy normal older adults and potentially in individuals with impaired cognitive function (i.e., mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease).

Age Factors↗

PubMed2004

Sleep and menopause.

Many midlife women obtain inadequate sleep, and sleep problems are common during the menopause transition. This article reviews the research literature on sleep and sleep disorders during menopause. Few studies have included subjective and objective measures of sleep quality or studied women during different menopause stages. Potential mechanisms associated with the emergence of insomnia and sleep-disordered breathing during menopause are discussed along with effects of estrogen and progesterone on sleep. It is argued that sleep quality is an important determinant of health status and quality of life for women during and beyond menopause.

Estrogen Replacement Therapy↗

PubMed2004

Hot flashes and sleep in women.

Sleep disturbances during menopause are often attributed to nocturnal hot flashes and 'sweats' associated with changing hormone patterns. This paper is a comprehensive critical review of the research on the relationship between sleep disturbance and hot flashes in women. Numerous studies have found a relationship between self-reported hot flashes and sleep complaints. However, hot flash studies using objective sleep assessment techniques such as polysomnography, actigraphy, or quantitative analysis of the sleep EEG are surprisingly scarce and have yielded somewhat mixed results. Much of this limited evidence suggests that hot flashes are associated with objectively identified sleep disruption in at least some women. At least some of the negative data may be due to methodological issues such as reliance upon problematic self-reports of nocturnal hot flashes and a lack of concurrent measures of hot flashes and sleep. The recent development of a reliable and non-intrusive method for objectively identifying hot flashes during the night should help address the need for substantial additional research in this area. Several areas of clinical relevance are described, including the effects of discontinuing combined hormone therapy (estrogen plus progesterone) or estrogen-only therapy, the possibility of hot flashes continuing for many years after menopause, and the link between hot flashes and depression.

Climacteric↗

PubMed2004

Age-related sleep change: Gender and estrogen effects on the subjective-objective sleep quality relationships of healthy, noncomplaining older men and women.

OBJECTIVE: The sleep of a large group of healthy older men and women was studied in an effort to better understand the relationship between self-reported subjective and objectively measured sleep quality. METHODS: We examined the baseline subjective and objective sleep quality of 150 healthy older (67.5+/-0.5) men (n=55) and women (n=95). Subjects were carefully screened to exclude sleep disorders and did not complain of significant sleep disturbance. RESULTS: Despite their noncomplaining status, significant proportions of both women (33%) and men (16%) endorsed Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scores of >5, a criterion indicative of significant sleep disturbance. When examined as a function of this criterion, objective sleep was significantly impaired with longer sleep latency, less total sleep time, and lower sleep efficiency, for the high-PSQI (H-PSQI) men compared to low-PSQI (L-PSQI) men. These L-PSQI versus H-PSQI differences were much weaker for women and disappeared completely in women on estrogen replacement therapy. CONCLUSIONS: This large group of healthy, noncomplaining older adults manifested significantly disturbed sleep relative to healthy younger subjects, indicating that while aging results in significant changes in sleep, it does not of necessity result in complaints of insomnia and that many healthy older individuals apparently adapt their perception of what is "acceptable" sleep. A considerable correspondence between subjective and objective sleep quality was observed for men but not for women, despite women more frequently endorsing the presence of significant sleep disturbance. This finding is provocative and suggests that what we consider objective measures of good-quality sleep may be appropriate for older men but that older women may be evaluating their sleep quality using other criteria.

Aged↗

PubMed2002

Sleep complaints cosegregate with illness in older adults: clinical research informed by and informing epidemiological studies of sleep.

OBJECTIVE: The more recent epidemiological studies of sleep complaints have shown that when factors such as physical and psychiatric illness, medication use and drug and alcohol use are accounted for, the age-related increase in prevalence of sleep complaints is strikingly less than in those earlier studies without such controls. In an effort to support this finding, we examined the relationships between clinical health screenings and sleep complaints and disorders in two large groups of potential research volunteers (total N=2954). METHODS: As part of a study of older adults at risk for Alzheimer's disease, two large groups of potential research volunteers (n=1619 and 1335, respectively) replied to advertisements that made no mention of sleep and underwent three increasingly rigorous levels of health screening. At each level of screening, medical and psychiatric health and history were assessed and, where appropriate, subjects were excluded from further study participation before any mention of sleep quality or sleep complaint was made. The remaining subjects then underwent polysomnography. RESULTS: Of 1619 elderly adult volunteers screened in this manner, only 51 (3.14%) were found to have significant sleep complaints or disorders. The second group of 1335 screened in this manner revealed a similar pattern with only 18 (1.35%) having significant sleep complaints or disorders. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that careful health assessments will screen out most sleep complaints and disorders in the older population and lend further support to the epidemiological evidence demonstrating that the bulk of geriatric sleep complaints and disorders is not the result of age per se, but rather cosegregates with medical and psychiatric disorders and related health burdens.

Aged↗