Trial reportPsychopharmacology2023
Pregnenolone effects on provoked alcohol craving, anxiety, HPA axis, and autonomic arousal in individuals with alcohol use disorder.
Trial report in Psychopharmacology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
19 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of the neuroactive steroid precursor pregnenolone on stress- and alcohol cue-provoked pain responses in individuals with alcohol use disorder.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2026Trial
- Pregnenolone reduces provoked craving and cocaine use in men and women with cocaine use disorder: A pilot trial.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Trial
- Pregnenolone effects on parasympathetic response to stress and alcohol cue provocation in treatment-seeking individuals with alcohol use disorder.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2025Trial
- Development of the Yale pain stress test to elicit a multi-level stress response and assess stress adaptability.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Research on the Changing Characteristics of Milk Composition and Serum Metabolites Across Various Lactation Periods in Xinggao Sheep.Metabolites · 2025Article
- Pregnenolone Reduces L-Dopa-Induced Dyskinesias in Female Parkinsonian Monkeys.Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society · 2025Article
- Neuroendocrine responses and coupling to laboratory-induced stress in problem gambling and heavy smoking.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- Allopregnanolone Regulation of Phasic Dopamine Release and Motivated Behavior.ACS chemical neuroscience · 2025Article
- Investigating Therapeutic Targets for Alcohol Use Disorder: Pharmacological View of ClinicalTrials.gov Data.International journal of general medicine · 2025Review
- Stability and Reliability of Repeated Plasma Pregnenolone Levels After Oral Pregnenolone Dosing in Individuals with Cocaine Use Disorder: Pilot Findings.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The Neurocircuitry of Substance Use Disorder, Treatment, and Change: A Resource for Clinical Psychiatrists.The American journal of psychiatry · 2024Review
- Stress and substance use disorders: risk, relapse, and treatment outcomes.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2024Review
- Acute, but not repeated, cocaine exposure alters allopregnanolone levels in the midbrain of male and female rats.Psychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Neuroactive Steroids, Toll-like Receptors, and Neuroimmune Regulation: Insights into Their Impact on Neuropsychiatric Disorders.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Implications of Kynurenine Pathway Metabolism for the Immune System, Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis, and Neurotransmission in Alcohol Use Disorder.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- The role of neurosteroids in posttraumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorder: A review of 10 years of clinical literature and treatment implications.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2024Review
- GABAergic compounds for the treatment of alcohol use disorder.International review of neurobiology · 2024Review
- Deleterious Interaction between the Neurosteroid (3α,5α)3-Hydroxypregnan-20-One (3α,5α-THP) and the Mu-Opioid System Activation during Forced Swim Stress in Rats.Biomolecules · 2023Article
- Chronic MAP4343 reverses escalated alcohol drinking in a mouse model of alcohol use disorder.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleChronic alcohol intake down-regulates GABAergic transmission and reduces levels of neuroactive steroids. These changes are associated with greater stress dysregulation and high alcohol craving which in turn increases relapse risk.
objectivesThis study tested whether potentiation of the neurosteroid system with pregnenolone (PREG), a precursor to neuroactive steroids and known to increase GABAergic transmission, will normalize chronic alcohol-related stress adaptations in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and autonomic responses and reduce alcohol craving to significantly impact relapse risk.
methodsForty-three treatment-seeking individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) were randomized to placebo (PBO) or supraphysiologic pregnenolone doses of 300 mg or 500 mg treatment using a parallel-between subject design as part of a larger 8-week pilot clinical trial. In week 2, they participated in a 3-day laboratory experiment where on each day they self-administered the assigned study drug in the laboratory and were then exposed to 5-min personalized guided imagery provocation of stress, alcohol, or neutral/relaxing cues, one condition per day on separate days, in a random, counterbalanced order. Repeated assessments of alcohol craving, anxiety, HPA axis, heart rate (HR), systolic (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and serum pregnenolone levels were made on each day.
resultsPregnenolone levels were significantly increased in the PREG groups versus PBO. PREG treatment decreased stress- and alcohol cue- induced craving and dose-specifically reduced stress-induced anxiety in the 300 mg/day group. Both PREG doses compared to PBO also normalized CORT/ACTH and increased stress-induced HR, stress- and cue-induced SBP, and in the 300 mg PREG group cue-induced DBP responses relative to neutral condition.
conclusionsFindings indicate that pregnenolone decreases stress- and alcohol cue-provoked craving and normalizes HPA axis and autonomic arousal in individuals with AUD, thereby supporting the need for further assessment of pregnenolone in the treatment of AUD.
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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.