Trial reportNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2016
The CRF1 Antagonist Verucerfont in Anxious Alcohol-Dependent Women: Translation of Neuroendocrine, But not of Anti-Craving Effects.
Trial report in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 116 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
116 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 161 citations in OpenAlex.
- Good Practice Guideline for Preclinical Alcohol Research: The STRINGENCY Framework.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Guideline
- The Use of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Test Pharmacotherapies for Alcohol Use Disorder: A Systematic Review.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2019Pooled it
- Trial
- PPARγ activation by pioglitazone does not suppress cravings for alcohol, and is associated with a risk of myopathy in treatment seeking alcohol dependent patients: a randomized controlled proof of principle study.Psychopharmacology · 2020Trial
- Ultra-brief breath counting (mindfulness) training promotes recovery from stress-induced alcohol-seeking in student drinkers.Addictive behaviors · 2020Trial
- Acute prazosin administration does not reduce stressor reactivity in healthy adults.Psychopharmacology · 2019Trial
- Lack of effects of simvastatin on smoking cessation in humans: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical study.Scientific reports · 2018Trial
- Effect of the CRFPsychopharmacology · 2016Trial
- Review
- The central amygdala corticotropin releasing factor system regulates anxiety-like behavior in an age- and sex- dependent manner in rats.Addiction neuroscience · 2026Article
- Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) in brain aging: from mitochondrial dysfunction to inflammaging.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Review
- The Psychedelic Psilocin Suppresses Activity of Central Amygdala Corticotropin-Releasing Factor Receptor 1 Neurons and Decreases Ethanol Drinking in Female Mice.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Disentangling the effects of corticotrophin releasing factor and GABA release from the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis on ethanol self-administration in mice.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Molecular Mechanisms of Depression: The Interplay Between Genes and Receptors.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Sex-dependent role of Neuropeptide-S on anxiety, fear conditioning, and alcohol seeking in alcohol preferring rats.Neuropharmacology · 2025Article
- Predator odor stress produces sex- and subpopulation-specific increases in alcohol drinking, anxiety-like behavior, and lateral hypothalamic Crh expression.Neuropharmacology · 2025Article
- Predicting individual treatment response in alcohol use disorders: a reverse translational proof-of-concept study.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Central amygdala astrocyte plasticity underlies GABAergic dysregulation in ethanol dependence.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Genetic analyses point to alterations in immune-related pathways underpinning the association between psychiatric disorders and COVID-19.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Behavioral Neurobiology of Alcohol Addiction: A Decade of Great Challenges, New Hopes, and Hypes.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
56 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Blockade of corticotropin-releasing factor receptor 1 (CRF1) suppresses stress-induced alcohol seeking in rodents, but clinical translation remains. Here, we first showed that the CRF1 antagonist verucerfont potently blocks hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis activation in adrenalectomized rats. We then evaluated verucerfont for its ability to block HPA axis activation and reduce stress-induced alcohol craving in alcohol-dependent patients. Anxious, alcohol-dependent women (age 21-65 years, n=39) were admitted to the NIH Clinical Center and completed withdrawal treatment before enrollment if needed. One-week single-blind placebo was followed by randomized double-blind verucerfont (350 mg per day) or placebo for 3 weeks. Verucerfont effects on the HPA axis were evaluated using the dexamethasone-CRF test. Craving was evaluated using two established protocols, one that combines a social stressor with physical alcohol cue exposure, and one that uses guided imagery to present personalized stress, alcohol, or neutral stimuli. An fMRI session examined brain responses to negative affective stimuli and alcohol cues. In contrast to our recent observations with another CRF1 antagonist, pexacerfont, verucerfont potently blocked the HPA axis response to the dexamethasone-CRF test, but left alcohol craving unaffected. Right amygdala responses to negative affective stimuli were significantly attenuated by verucerfont, but responses to alcohol-associated stimuli were increased in some brain regions, including left insula. Discontinuation rates were significantly higher in the verucerfont group. Our findings provide the first translational evidence that CRF1 antagonists with slow receptor dissociation kinetics may have increased efficacy to dampen HPA axis responses. The findings do not support a clinical efficacy of CRF1 blockade in stress-induced alcohol craving and relapse.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.