Ongoing clinical trials with pexacerfont and verucerfont in moderately to highly severe dependent anxious alcoholics may yield insight as to the role of CRF(1) receptor antagonists in a personalized medicine approach to treat drug or alcohol dependence.
The goals of this commentary are to discuss the important contributions of the work by Kaur and colleagues titled "Corticotropin-releasing factor acting on corticotropin-releasing factor receptor type 1 is critical for binge alcohol drinking in mice," published in this issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, and to highlight the importance of preclinical research aimed at identifying the neurobiology of binge ethanol drinking.
Alcohol dependence is associated with increased corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) influence on CeA GABA release and CRF type 1 receptor (CRF(1)) antagonists prevent the excessive alcohol consumption associated with dependence.
This study examined the influence of an intronic CRHR1 gene variant, rs110402, on brain responses to negative emotional words, negative emotional traits, and alcohol use in adolescents and young adults at high risk for alcoholism.