could be part of the allostatic change suggested by Koob & Kreek (2007). In the hippocampus, resetting the cortisol pathway may be one way to break this chain of events. Decreased neurogenesis and increased inflammation are also seen in major depressive illness (Koo et al., 2010), but antidepressant treatment has had mixed results in the treatment of alcoholism per se (Kranzler et al., 2012). Animal and human post mortem research indicate the innate immune function induced by TLRs and NF-κB signaling creates negative affect and stress, which with repeated cycles of ethanol abuse leads to addiction (Crews et al., 2011). This study demonstrates that this increase in the innate immune system and NF-κB signaling is still present after years of chronic drinking. With multiple stressors increasing NF-κB signaling, it may take a multi-pronged approach to normalize the brain of chronic drinkers.
