This article reviews literature indicating the complex reciprocal relationship between stress and alcohol, with particular emphasis on animal models demonstrating how stress associated with chronic alcohol exposure and withdrawal experience serves as a continual physiological, psychological, and behavioral challenge to the organism. Neuroadaptive (and maladaptive) mechanisms underlying a negative emotional state, altered stress responsiveness, and increased motivation to seek and consume alcohol are key components of the addiction process. The article highlights studies showing that prolonged exposure to alcohol produces perturbations in neuroendocrine and brain stress systems that interface with and influence motivational and reward circuitry in the brain, ultimately rendering subjects more vulnerable to relapse and driving excessive levels of alcohol consumption.
