Dissection of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis pathology in 1-month-abstinent alcohol-dependent men, part 2: response to ovine corticotropin-releasing factor and naloxone

What Was Tested

Researchers studied ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone) in this clinical trial publication.

Pituitary and adrenal responsiveness is suppressed in abstinent alcohol-dependent individuals.

To clarify the specific organizational disruption in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal functioning during early abstinence, the authors separately assessed each level of the stress-response axis.

Who Took Part

The study group was 10 participants.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults and middle-aged adults, men only.

Eleven abstinent alcohol-dependent men and 10 healthy comparison participants were assessed.

All participants were between the ages of 30 and 50 years, and alcohol-dependent patients were abstinent from 4 to 6 weeks.

How the Study Was Run

In addition, pulsatile characteristics of corticotropin and cortisol were assessed over a 12-hr period (0800 to 2000 hr).

Basal concentrations of corticotropin and cortisol were obtained every 10 min from 0800 to 2000 hr and subjected to pulsatile analysis.

Medications were administered at 2000 hr and the two challenge studies were separated by 48 hr.

What Was Measured

To clarify the specific organizational disruption in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal functioning during early abstinence, the authors separately assessed each level of the stress-response axis.

In this second of a two-part study, ovine corticotropin-releasing factor (oCRH) was used to stimulate the pituitary corticotrophs, and naloxone was used to activate the axis at the hypothalamic level.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Adrenocorticotropic Hormone, Alcoholism, Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone, Demography, Endorphins, Hydrocortisone and Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a clinical trial of ACTH (Corticotropin) and CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone) in 10 participants.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2005 (Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research), a journal based in England.

More context: the ACTH (Corticotropin) compound page and the CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone) compound page, all human trials.