Abstract
Rationale
The beneficial effects of moderate alcohol may differ in aging men versus women.
Objectives
Cognitive and functional decline and neuropathology were investigated in a cohort of aging men and women with diverse alcohol histories.
Methods
Non-demented (Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) of ≤ 0.5 and a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of > 24), autonomously living participants were tracked in longitudinal aging studies to examine self-report and objective tests of rates of decline in a cohort (n = 486) of octogenarians. Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs; Braak stage) and neuritic plaques (NPs) were staged at autopsy in a subset of participants (n = 149) using current standard neuropathologic diagnostic criteria.
Results
Moderate drinking men had an attenuated rate of decline compared to rare/never drinkers and women on the MMSE and CDR sum of boxes. In contrast, moderate drinking women had a reduced rate of decline only in the Logical Memory Delayed Recall Test (LMDR) compared to rare/never drinkers and men. Moderate alcohol consumption was associated with a reduction in the incidence of advanced (stages 5–6) Braak NFT stage in men (p < 0.05), with no effect in women.
Conclusions
In this cohort, men experienced a broader range of beneficial effects associated with alcohol. Alcohol’s effects may differ in men and women in important ways that suggest a narrower beneficial window.
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Contents do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States Government.
Funding
This work was supported by VA Merit Review Award #BX002061 (JML) and Career Development Award #BX001294 (CJW) from the United States (U.S.) Department of Veterans Affairs Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development and from the National Institutes of Health (P30AG024978, R01AG024059, P30AG008017) for support of the ISAAC and OBAS projects.
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Wardzala, C., Murchison, C., Loftis, J.M. et al. Sex differences in the association of alcohol with cognitive decline and brain pathology in a cohort of octogenarians. Psychopharmacology 235, 761–770 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4791-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4791-6