Another important question for future studies will be whether FAAH inhibitors work to normalize impairments in fear extinction that are known to be produced by environmental insults such as exposure to abused drugs and stress [97,103]. Indeed, several authors have posited utility of FAAH inhibitors for drug and alcohol addiction [104], and the effects related to stress are particularly pertinent given the protective effects of boosting ECBs (by inhibiting FAAH) for stress-induced anxiety-related behaviors discussed above. Interestingly in this context, deficient fear extinction caused by a restraint/swim stressor was recently shown to be rescued by intra-BLA (or hippocampal, but not mPFC) injection of a CB1R agonist (WIN55212-2) immediately after stress [105,106]. Demonstrating similar effects with selective FAAH inhibitors would support the utility of these compounds across a range of extinction-impaired settings.
