New onset executive function difficulties at menopause: a possible role for lisdexamfetamine

• Published in: Psychopharmacology Vol. 232; no. 16; pp. 3091 - 3100
• Main Authors: Epperson, C. Neill, Shanmugan, Sheila, Kim, Deborah R., Mathews, Sarah, Czarkowski, Kathryn A., Bradley, Jeanette, Appleby, Dina H., Iannelli, Claudia, Sammel, Mary D., Brown, Thomas E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.08.2015; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Attention - drug effects; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Central Nervous System Stimulants - administration & dosage; Central Nervous System Stimulants - therapeutic use; Cognition & reasoning; Cognition - drug effects; Cognition Disorders - drug therapy; Cognition Disorders - psychology; Cognitive disorders; Complications and side effects; Cross-Over Studies; Double-Blind Method; Executive function (Psychology); Executive Function - drug effects; Female; Health aspects; Humans; Lisdexamfetamine; Lisdexamfetamine Dimesylate - administration & dosage; Lisdexamfetamine Dimesylate - therapeutic use; Memory; Memory, Short-Term - drug effects; Menopause; Menopause - psychology; Mental Recall - drug effects; Middle Aged; Neurosciences; Original Investigation; Pharmacology/Toxicology; Psychiatry; Psychological aspects; Psychopharmacology; Risk factors; Treatment Outcome; Brown Attention Deficit Disorder Scale; ADHD; Verbal memory; Executive function; Menopause; Cognition; Psychostimulant; Lisdexamfetamine; Paragraph recall
• ISSN: 0033-3158; 1432-2072
• DOI: 10.1007/s00213-015-3953-7

Rationale Reports of cognitive decline, particularly in the domains of executive functions (EFs), are common among menopausal women. Objective This study aims to determine the impact of the psychostimulant lisdexamfetamine (LDX) on subjective and objective cognitive function among menopausal women who report new-onset EF complaints. Methods Thirty-two healthy perimenopausal and early postmenopausal women experiencing mid-life-onset executive function difficulties as measured using the Brown Attention Deficit Disorder Scale (BADDS) were administered LDX 40–60 mg/day for 4 weeks in this double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study. Diagnosis of lifetime ADHD was exclusionary. BADDS total and subscale scores and performance on verbal memory and working memory tasks were outcomes of interest. Results Analyses revealed a significant effect of LDX treatment over placebo for total BADDS scores ( p  = 0.0001) and for four out of the five BADDS subscales (all p  < 0.004). LDX treatment also resulted in significant improvement in delayed paragraph recall ( p  = 0.018), but there was no significant effect of treatment on other cognitive measures. Systolic blood pressure ( p  = 0.017) and heart rate increased significantly ( p  = 0.006) when women were on LDX but remained, on average, within the normal range. Conclusions LDX 40–60 mg/day was well tolerated and improved the subjective measures of executive function as well as objective measures of delayed verbal recall in this sample of healthy menopausal women.