Although there are several FDA approved medications and evidence-based behavioral counseling approaches to AUD treatment, their effects are modest (Garbutt, 2009; Litten et al., 2015) and relapse during and after treatment are common (Hunt et al., 1971; Shim et al., 2017; Sinha, 2011). Craving, encompassing the psychological urge and intent to use and the associated physiological arousal (Sinha, 2013), is a cardinal symptom in DSM-5 for each of the substance use disorders (SUD) including alcohol (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). It has also been the focus of pharmacologic and behavioral treatments for SUD and AUD, but craving associated with stress is rarely addressed in SUD and AUD treatment, and there are no specific empirically validated pharmacologic or behavioral treatments for AUD to date that specifically targets the stress-induced craving state. Naltrexone, by far the most studied pharmacological intervention for AUD, targets craving but it is unclear if it reduces stress-induced craving. There is preliminary evidence that pharmacological interventions that target the adrenergic system may reduce craving evoked by both alcohol/drugs and stress (Fox and Sinha, 2014; Fox et al., 2012; Lê
