Alcohol withdrawal and pain: Peripheral mechanisms join central circuits.

Negative affective aspects of alcohol withdrawal and pain involve converging brain circuits. In this issue of Neuron , Son et al. 1 identify a peripheral mechanism of an alcohol-withdrawal-induced headache-like condition, which is centered on mast-cell-specific receptor MrgprB2 activated by corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) in dura mater to drive nociception. Negative affective aspects of alcohol withdrawal and pain involve converging brain circuits. In this issue of Neuron , Son et al. identify a peripheral mechanism of an alcohol-withdrawal-induced headache-like condition, which is centered on mast-cell-specific receptor MrgprB2 activated by corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) in dura mater to drive nociception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]