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What Causes What
MECHANISM0 NULL

DHEA-S → Cognitive performance

A rise in DHEA-S does not identify a change in Cognitive performance.

A year of 50 mg DHEA did not move six cognitive tests against placebo in 225 healthy adults aged 55 to 85. A Cochrane review of earlier RCTs and a 13-week crossover in 46 older men also found no cognitive benefit.

Randomized trial · Moderate · N=225

Supported by an experiment or a tightly identified design. Read the caveats.

Mechanism

DHEA and DHEA-S fall with age. Observational series then tied lower levels to worse memory, and rodent work showed learning gains. The human claim is that a pill restoring youthful DHEA restores cognition. Kritz-Silverstein, von Muhlen, Laughlin, and Bettencourt (DAWN, 2008) tested that claim. Two hundred twenty-five community-dwelling men and women aged 55 to 85, not chosen for low DHEA, took 50 mg oral DHEA or placebo for one year. Circulating DHEA and DHEA-S rose two- to fourfold and stayed there. The battery was the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination, Trail Making B, category fluency, a 15-item Boston Naming Test, and immediate and delayed ten-word list recall. Change over twelve months did not differ by arm (P>.10). Grimley Evans, Malouf, Huppert, and van Niekerk (Cochrane, 2007) reviewed randomized placebo-controlled trials of DHEA or DHEA-S in people over 50 without dementia. They could not pool. Three trials had adequate parallel-group data. Barnhart 1999 found no cognitive effect at three months. Wolf 1998b gave 75 people aged 59 to 81 two weeks of DHEA; after a stressor, placebo lost selective attention and DHEA lost visual memory recall. van Niekerk 2001 found no cognitive effect. The reviewers wrote that the controlled trials do not support a cognitive benefit. van Niekerk, Huppert, and Herbert (2001) ran a double-blind crossover: 50 mg DHEA for 13 weeks then placebo, or the reverse, in 46 men aged 62 to 76. Tests covered speed, attention, and episodic memory. The treatment contrast moved none of the trial outcomes. Parsons, Kratz, Thompson, Stanczyk, and Buckwalter (2006) re-analyzed a six-month, 25 mg trial in twenty postmenopausal women. DHEA raised daytime cortisol. Cortisol did not explain a cognitive drop. The authors infer a direct negative effect. That is a mediation claim in twenty women, not a second year-long null.

Caveats

DAWN enrolled healthy, cognitively intact people. Mean Modified Mini-Mental State was about 96. The authors say a different result in people who are already impaired, clinically depressed, or adrenal-insufficient is an open question. It is not a license to treat a wellness-panel DHEA-S as a cognitive stack. Compliance was about 95 percent. The authors report power above 0.80 on every cognitive test. Analyses were intent-to-treat. Twenty-three people on DHEA and ten on placebo stopped for adverse events. Those counts do not create a cognitive benefit. The Cochrane review is a review of randomized trials. It does not make DAWN more settled. Wolf's visual-memory finding after a lab stressor is one task in one short trial, not a benefit. van Niekerk is available here only as an abstract. The abstract names 46 men. Baseline hormone correlations with mood and memory are not the treatment result. Parsons is available here only as an abstract. The cognitive-decrease claim they mediate comes from Kratz's earlier analysis of the same twenty women. Do not read it as a failed replication of DAWN. This edge is cognition. Baulieu 2000 sits on DHEA toward status-seeking. Mood and sexual function in DAWN also failed against placebo; they are not this page.

Effect

qualitative. DAWN: 50 mg DHEA vs placebo for 1 year in 225 healthy adults aged 55 to 85. No between-group change on six cognitive tests (P>.10). Cochrane 2007 review of RCTs: no benefit. van Niekerk 2001: 13 weeks in 46 men, no treatment effect.

Nodes

Biology & endocrinologyDHEA-SPsychology & behaviorCognitive performance

Named confounders

Cite this page

What Causes What. “DHEA-S → Cognitive performance.” https://whatcauseswhat.org/edges/e-dhea-cognition (atlas updated 2026-09-02).

https://whatcauseswhat.org/edges/e-dhea-cognition

Papers