Stress‐related neuropeptide systems as targets for treatment of alcohol addiction: A clinical perspective

Abstract

AbstractAlcohol use is a major cause of disability and death globally. These negative consequences disproportionately affect people who develop alcohol addiction, a chronic relapsing condition characterized by increased motivation to use alcohol, choice of alcohol over healthy, natural rewards, and continued use despite negative consequences. Available pharmacotherapies for alcohol addiction are few, have effect sizes in need of improvement, and remain infrequently prescribed. Research aimed at developing novel therapeutics has in large part focused on attenuating pleasurable or “rewarding” properties of alcohol, but this targets processes that primarily play a role as initiation factors. As clinical alcohol addiction develops, long‐term changes in brain function result in a shift of affective homeostasis, and rewarding alcohol effects become progressively reduced. Instead, increased stress sensitivity and negative affective states emerge in the absence of alcohol and create powerful incentives for relapse and continued use through negative reinforcement, or “relief.” Based on research in animal models, several neuropeptide systems have been proposed to play an important role in this shift, suggesting that these systems could be targeted by novel medications. Two mechanisms in this category, antagonism at corticotropin‐releasing factor type 1, and neurokinin 1/substance P receptors, have been subject to initial evaluation in humans. A third, kappa‐opioid receptor antagonism, has been evaluated in nicotine addiction and could soon be tested for alcohol. This paper discusses findings with these mechanisms to date, and their prospects as future targets for novel medications.