Your Dysregulated Stress Response (E201)

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This episode is everything you need to know about cortisol, stress and alcohol. I’ll explain how our stress system adapts to both chronic stress and chronic heavy drinking, how multiple cycles of withdrawal impacts this adaptation, how this causes more cravings, and what this means for our ability to cope with life. We think alcohol helps take the edge off and reduce our stress levels, but it actually just makes us less resilient. 

Verplaetse. 2024.

A relationship was found between 11B-HSD1 and drinks/week and drinks/episode in the prefrontal cortex. Also Alcohol Dependence Severity was significantly associated with the radiotracer in the anterior cingulate cortex and prefrontal cortex.

What to listen to next:

E191: Going Back and Forth Makes Your Cravings Stronger

E22: Why You Think Alcohol Helps Your Anxiety

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• Community & Meetings: Living a Sober Powered Life

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Listen to the full episode in your podcasting app: Apple Spotify other apps

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Cite:

Tietz, Gillian., Painter, Michael. Your Dysregulated Stress Response (E201). Sober Powered Podcast. 2024

Please respect my intellectual property and properly credit me if you share my work.

Sources

1. Verplaetse et al., 2024. Imaging a putative marker of brain cortisol regulation in alcohol use disorder. Neurobiology of Stress.

2. Soravia, L. et al. Effects of cortisol administration on craving during in vivo exposure in patients with alcohol use disorder. Translational Psychiatry. 2021

3. King, A. et al. Attenuated cortisol response to alcohol in heavy social drinkers. Int J Psychophysiol. 2006

4. Liu, Y. et al. Neural habituation during acute stress signals a blunted endocrine response and poor resilience. Psychol Med. 2023

5. Blaine SK, Nautiyal N, Hart R, et al. Craving, cortisol and behavioral alcohol motivation responses to stress and alcohol cue contexts and discrete cues in binge and non-binge drinkers. Addict Biol. 2019;24(5):1096-1108.

6. McCaul, M. Anxiety, Anxiety Sensitivity, and Perceived Stress as Predictors of Recent Drinking, Alcohol Craving, and Social Stress Response in Heavy Drinkers. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 41:4. 2017