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ORIGINAL RESEARCH |
From the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan; the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia; Barnes Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri; and Lilly Research Laboratories, Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Address reprint requests to: Sheryl L. Silfen, MD Lilly Research Laboratories Eli Lilly and Company Indianapolis, IN 46285
| Abstract |
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Methods: In a multicenter, double-blind, 12-month study, 398 women were assigned randomly to one of four groups: raloxifene HCl, 60 (n = 97) or 150 mg/day (n = 100); conjugated equine estrogens, 0.625 mg/day (n = 96); or placebo (n = 105). The Womens Health Questionnaire, a validated quality-of-life instrument for perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, was administered at baseline and 3-month intervals.
Results: Overall, quality of life from baseline to end point was preserved equally in all treatment groups. Six domains (depressed mood, somatic symptoms, memory/ concentration, sexual behavior, sleep problems, and perceived attractiveness) were unchanged in all groups. Three domains (menstrual symptoms, vasomotor symptoms, and anxiety/fears) were statistically significantly different among groups. Mean scores for menstrual symptoms significantly worsened and vasomotor symptoms significantly improved from baseline to end point in the estrogen group. Mean scores for vasomotor symptoms did not worsen at any point in the raloxifene 60 mg/day group. Mean anxiety/fears scores improved significantly during raloxifene 60 mg/day administration throughout treatment (P < .05), irrespective of previous hormone replacement therapy, baseline estradiol (E2) levels, or years postmenopause.
Conclusion: Most quality-of-life domains were not affected by treatment with estrogen or raloxifene. Estrogen provided relief from vasomotor symptoms but caused menstrual symptoms. Raloxifene 60 mg/day improved anxiety levels in postmenopausal women.
The physiologic changes that result from decreased estrogen production occur concurrently with physical aging and midlife psychosocial adaptations. Decreases in quality of life that may occur during menopause, including disturbed sleep patterns, increased anxiety or depression, short-term memory loss, and somatic symptoms, could be the result of any or all of these physiologic, psychologic, and social changes.1 On the basis of the assumption that the physiologic and psychologic symptoms at menopause result solely from estrogen deprivation, estrogen administration was expected to alleviate these symptoms and improve quality of life.2 Data from menopausal women with vasomotor symptoms3,4 and women who had just undergone surgical castration5 supported the initial impression that estrogen administration would improve vasomotor symptoms, mood, depression, anxiety, and memory. However, recent clinical trials that enrolled menopausal women not seeking relief of vasomotor symptoms defined a more narrow scope of estrogen benefits on quality-of-liferelated outcomes.6,7 Furthermore, evidence suggests that the severity of menopausal symptoms and the frequency with which women seek medical treatment are highly conditioned by sociocultural factors.8,9
Raloxifene, a selective estrogen receptor modulator, acts as an estrogen agonist on bone and serum lipid metabolism and as an estrogen antagonist in the breast and uterus.10 In healthy postmenopausal women, raloxifene therapy prevents bone loss11 and decreases serum cholesterol levels.12 In postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, raloxifene therapy was associated with a decreased relative risk of incident vertebral fractures13 and breast cancer.14 Three reports address the effects of raloxifene on quality-of-liferelated outcomes. In young healthy postmenopausal women, the incidence of hot flushes was higher in the raloxifene group compared with placebo.11,12 In a randomized, 1-year, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, raloxifene treatment neither improved nor impaired cognitive function as measured by using the Memory Assessment Clinics battery or the Walter Reed Performance Assessment Battery.15 The same study also found that women in the raloxifene treatment group did not have significant changes in mood, as assessed by using the Geriatric Depression Scale, compared with the placebo group.
The objective of our prospective study was to evaluate the effects of raloxifene compared with estrogen or placebo on quality of life in healthy postmenopausal women at baseline and 3-month intervals. The Womens Health Questionnaire, which was specifically developed to subjectively measure physical and emotional well-being in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women,16 has been validated and administered in studies of hormone replacement therapy.17
| Materials and Methods |
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To maintain masking, placebo was provided both as tablets identical in appearance to raloxifene and capsules identical in appearance to estrogen (double-dummy packaging). Women took one tablet and one capsule of masked study medication. The study medication and placebo, packaged in kits numbered according to a random-number table, were assigned sequentially to each woman at randomization, beginning with the lowest number available. In addition to study medication, all women received calcium, 520 mg/day.
The Womens Health Questionnaire, a validated instrument that subjectively assesses quality of life in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women,16 was administered at baseline and at 3-month intervals. The 36 questions (Table 1
) cover nine predetermined domains: depressed mood, somatic symptoms, memory/ concentration, vasomotor symptoms, anxiety/fears, sexual behavior, sleep problems, menstrual symptoms, and perceived attractiveness. Women had the option of omitting the questions on sexuality. Each participant was asked to respond with one of four possible answers, "yes, definitely," "yes, sometimes," "no, not much," and "no, not at all," based on her current feelings. For directional consistency in the calculations, each response was assigned to a 4-point scale, with 4 considered the best condition and 1 the worst. As each domain is reported, an increased mean score indicates an improvement in symptoms and a decreased mean score indicates a worsening of symptoms. Although the Womens Health Questionnaire was developed as a binary outcome measure, the original 4-point categoric patient score and overall scores are considered more informative for directional evaluations.19,20 If any unexpected overall changes were noted in any domain, additional analyses were performed to examine these changes in subpopulations of women. The women were categorized by using clinically relevant variables, including baseline domain scores, baseline E2 levels, previous HRT use, and years postmenopause.
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level of significance. | Results |
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The scores for anxiety/fears differed significantly among therapy groups (Table 4
). In the raloxifene 60 mg/day group, mean scores for anxiety/fears improved significantly from baseline at all times (Figure 1
) and were greater than the scores in the placebo and estrogen groups at 3 and 12 months (P < .05 for both groups). The mean scores for the anxiety/fears domain were examined further by dividing the study population according to clinically relevant parameters: baseline scores, baseline E2 levels, previous HRT use, and years after menopause (Table 5
). In women who had baseline anxiety scores below the median (more anxious), both estrogen and raloxifene 60 mg/day significantly improved the anxiety/fears score. In women who had baseline anxiety scores at or above the median (less anxious), the mean anxiety/fears score at end point was significantly worse than baseline score only in the estrogen group. No change occurred in the placebo group. Raloxifene 60 mg/day significantly improved mean anxiety/fears scores from baseline, irrespective of previous HRT use, baseline E2 levels, or years postmenopause (Table 5
). Raloxifene 150 mg/day significantly improved the mean anxiety/fears scores in women who had never used HRT.
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| Discussion |
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Raloxifene 60 mg/day was found to improve anxiety scores compared with baseline and with the other treatment groups. The degree of improvement was not significant with the higher raloxifene dose, possibly due to the sample size. Several explanations for the lack of dose response are possible, including a different symptom profile with the higher raloxifene dose, sensitivity of the Womens Health Questionnaire, and physiologic or cellular mechanisms that are not yet understood. The improvement in anxiety scores with raloxifene 60 mg/day occurred regardless of previous use of HRT, baseline E2 level, or years postmenopause. Women who were more anxious at baseline had significantly improved anxiety scores when treated with raloxifene 60 mg/day or conjugated equine estrogens. In contrast, women who were less anxious at baseline had significantly worsened anxiety scores with conjugated equine estrogens.
In observational studies, women who were anxious and had poor stress-coping skills were more likely to seek HRT.9,21,22 Women who use estrogen were more likely to use concomitant anxiolytic agents.23 In the large randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled Postmenopausal Estrogen/Progestin Interventions trial, only women who adhered to therapy with unopposed conjugated equine estrogens had a reduction in anxiety.6 In the same study, no effect on anxiety was noted with unopposed conjugated equine estrogens in the intention-to-treat population or in women treated with estrogen combined with progestin. The effects of raloxifene 60 mg/day differ from those of oral conjugated equine estrogens in that raloxifene improved anxiety scores regardless of baseline anxiety. Because raloxifene does not require progestin coadministration, attenuation of the potential benefits of estrogen6 by the adverse psychologic effects caused by progestin can be avoided.24 No conclusions can be drawn from our data about raloxifene compared with estrogen plus progestin, but there is no evidence to suggest that adding progestin to estrogen would improve quality-of-life outcomes.
In our study of asymptomatic postmenopausal women, six of the nine Womens Health Questionnaire domains did not statistically differ among therapy groups, indicating a stable quality of life regardless of treatment. Large population-based surveys report that most women going through menopause have neutral or positive views on this transition, contrary to the common medical impression of a deterioration in quality of life.1,25,26 Studies that show an improvement in quality of life with estrogen administration, including those that used the Womens Health Questionnaire, were confounded by enrolling women who had moderate-to-severe vasomotor symptoms.17,19,27 In those studies, relief from vasomotor symptoms obtained with estrogen could have positively influenced other quality-of-life domains, such as cognitive function. The benefit of estrogen on cognitive function among cohorts of women not seeking relief from vasomotor symptoms is challenged by a growing body of evidence.23,28 Randomized trials6,29 and a meta-analysis that stratified results on the basis of the presence or absence of menopausal symptoms30 also raise questions about the universal benefit of estrogen.
Our results suggest that asymptomatic postmenopausal women should expect to maintain a stable quality of life irrespective of therapy with raloxifene, unopposed conjugated equine estrogens, or no treatment. Women specifically seeking relief from vasomotor symptoms, who are usually treated with estrogen, were not included in this study. Therefore, our results should be applied only to women seeking therapy for prevention or treatment of osteoporosis.
Finally, we detected some differences in quality of life among the raloxifene, conjugated equine estrogens, and placebo groups. Although conjugated equine estrogens administration improved vasomotor symptoms scores, it worsened menstrual symptom scores. Neither vasomotor nor menstrual symptom scores were affected by raloxifene administration. Raloxifene 60 mg/day significantly improved anxiety scores. Further research is needed to determine whether this improvement in anxiety could enhance continuance of therapy in asymptomatic women taking raloxifene for treatment or prevention of osteoporosis.
| Footnotes |
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This research was supported by Eli Lilly and Company, maker of raloxifene. Doctors Shen, Wong, and Silfen are employees of and hold stock in Eli Lilly and Company. Doctors Strickler, Stovall, and Merritt have received honoraria for their services to Eli Lilly and Company.
Received November 29, 1999. Received in revised form March 14, 2000. Accepted March 24, 2000.
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