CRH and Anxiety: CRH is also distributed in the extra-hypothalamic region including the amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), both of which are closely associated with fear and anxiety (Walker et al. 2003), suggesting that CRH mediates the behavior in unfamiliar surroundings (Merali et al. 2004; Bale and Vale, 2004).