Brain activation and subjective anxiety during an anticipatory anxiety task is related to clinical outcome during prazosin treatment for alcohol use disorder.

Background: Higher levels of anxiety, negative affect, and impaired emotion regulation are associated with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and contribute to relapse and worse treatment outcomes. Prazosin, while typically used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other anxiety disorders, has shown promise for treating AUD. In order to better understand these underlying neural processes in individuals with AUD, our aims in this study were to measure brain activation during an anticipatory anxiety task before treatment to determine whether observed patterns supported previous work.

Stroop-related cerebellar and temporal activation is correlated with negative affect and alcohol use disorder severity.

Impairment in cognitive control in alcohol use disorder (AUD) contributes to difficulty controlling alcohol use and, in many populations, difficulties with emotion regulation. However, the most reliable and robust marker of clinically-relevant deficits in cognitive control in AUD is unclear. Our aims were to measure relationships between BOLD signal during a Stroop task and AUD severity and change in BOLD signal and change in drinking over three weeks.

A Randomized, Placebo-controlled, Clinical Trial of Prazosin for the Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder.

Objectives: The noradrenergic system plays an important role in the pathophysiology of alcohol use disorder (AUD). Medications in this class may reduce drinking. Our aims were to investigate this in a unique sample of individuals with AUD.