Greater Focus on Sex, Gender Differences in Alzheimer's Needed
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Mounting evidence suggests sex and gender differentially affect the risk, clinical presentation, and progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and these differences should be considered in the planning and analyses of AD studies and development of AD therapeutics, researchers advise in a new report. The Society for Women's Health Research Interdisciplinary Network on Alzheimer's Disease, comprising an expert panel of scientists and clinicians, reviewed ongoing research and published literature related to sex and gender differences in AD.
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@shamita The extent to which findings of sex and gender differences in AD are due to longevity, survival bias, and comorbidities; Potential sex-specific risk factors for AD across the lifespan, including oophorectomy, menopause, pregnancy, androgen deprivation therapy, and testosterone loss; The influence of estrogens and hormone therapy on brain function and AD risk in light of discrepancies in the clinical literature; Potential sex differences in genetic risk factors for AD; Sex differences in AD progression and the trajectory of change in cognitive function, neuroimaging, cerebrospinal fluid, and blood-based biomarkers of AD; Gender differences in caregiving and how the burden of caregiving influences AD risk; and Sex and gender differences in development of AD therapeutics, from preclinical to clinical studies, and in the design of clinical trials.