Pseudo-Cushing's syndrome: an example of alcohol-induced central disorder in corticotropin-releasing factor-ACTH release?

Six chronic alcoholics with stigmata of Cushing's syndrome were studied before and after a period of alcohol abstinence. In all of them, after a minimum period of 3-4 weeks, a marked clinical and laboratory improvement was noted. The authors suggest that damage at brain level, with neurotransmitters' disturbance, caused by chronic alcoholism underlies the Pseudo-Cushing's Syndrome. The primum movens could be a disorder of the pituitary-adrenal axis secondary to a dysfunction of neurotransmitters with stimulation of ACTH-secreting cells of the adenohypophysis by the certicotropin-releasing factor (CRF).