July 13, 2009
Jayne M. Dawkins
Strategic Marketing Manager - Elsevier
215-239-3674
Blocking the Ability of Stress to Trigger Smoking:
A New Treatment Approach?
Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is a neuropeptide that regulates the human stress response. It is well known that smokers are highly susceptible to relapse, particularly when under stress, and continue to experience cravings even years after quitting. Drugs that reduce the negative mood and stress associated with quitting tobacco may help improve long-term cessation rates.
Pharmaceutical companies have invested extensively in developing drugs that block CRF-1 receptors, thereby reducing the behavioral response to stress. Their introduction into clinical trials was met by a high level of enthusiasm by the clinical research community. However, the results from testing these drugs in depression and anxiety disorders have been disappointing.
“There has been the growing impression that the failure of these drugs in the treatment of depression was not the failure of these drugs to block the CRF-1 receptor in the brain. Rather, it seemed to be the case that we needed to re-think the issue of the clinical problems that these drugs might solve,” says John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry. “It may be the case that CRF-1 antagonists are ineffective for major depressive disorder, but they might be quite useful for treating other indications, such as preventing relapse to smoking.” This hypothesis is supported by an article being published in the July 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry by Bruijnzeel and colleagues at the University of Florida.
These researchers investigated the role of brain stress systems in the negative mood state associated with acute nicotine withdrawal and stress-induced reinstatement of nicotine-seeking behavior in rats. They found that by blocking the CRF-1 receptor, these drugs prevented the negative mood associated with nicotine withdrawal and the relapse to nicotine-seeking. Dr. Bruijnzeel comments on the importance of this finding, which “indicates that drugs that block the CRF-1 receptor might be novel, non-addictive treatments to prevent the dysphoria associated with smoking cessation and prevent stress-induced relapse to smoking.”
Although additional research is still needed, this would be a vital breakthrough for smokers, the great majority of whom relapse during the first few days after quitting smoking or when exposed to a stressor after the acute withdrawal phase.
# # #
Notes to Editors:
The article is “Corticotropin-Releasing Factor-1 Receptor Activation Mediates Nicotine Withdrawal-Induced Deficit in Brain Reward Function and Stress-Induced Relapse” by Adrie W. Bruijnzeel, Melissa Prado, and Shani Isaac. The authors are affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. The authors’ disclosures of financial and conflicts of interest are available in the article. The article appears in Biological Psychiatry, Volume 66, Issue 2 (July 15, 2009), published by Elsevier.
John H. Krystal, M.D. is Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and a research psychiatrist at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. His disclosures of financial and conflicts of interests are available at http://journals.elsevierhealth.com/webfiles/images/journals/bps/Biological_Psychiatry_Editorial_Disclosures_08_01_08.pdf.
Full text of the article mentioned above is available upon request. Contact Jayne M. Dawkins at to obtain a copy or to schedule an interview.
About Biological Psychiatry
This international rapid-publication journal is the official journal of the Society of Biological Psychiatry. It covers a broad range of topics in psychiatric neuroscience and therapeutics. Both basic and clinical contributions are encouraged from all disciplines and research areas relevant to the pathophysiology and treatment of major neuropsychiatric disorders. Full-length and Brief Reports of novel results, Commentaries, Case Studies of unusual significance, and Correspondence and Comments judged to be of high impact to the field are published, particularly those addressing genetic and environmental risk factors, neural circuitry and neurochemistry, and important new therapeutic approaches. Concise Reviews and Editorials that focus on topics of current research and interest are also published rapidly.
Biological Psychiatry (www.sobp.org/journal) is ranked 4th out of the 95 Psychiatry titles and 16th out of 199 Neurosciences titles on the 2006 ISI Journal Citations Reports® published by Thomson Scientific.
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. Working in partnership with the global science and health communities, Elsevier’s 7,000 employees in over 70 offices worldwide publish more than 2,000 journals and 1,900 new books per year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products, such as ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com/), MD Consult (http://www.mdconsult.com/), Scopus (http://www.info.scopus.com/), bibliographic databases, and online reference works. Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com/) is a global business headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has offices worldwide. Elsevier is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc (http://www.reedelsevier.com/), a world-leading publisher and information provider. Operating in the science and medical, legal, education and business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier provides high-quality and flexible information solutions to users, with increasing emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery. Reed Elsevier's ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).