GABRA2 and Anxiety: One of the ways that EtOH may be acting to reduce anxiety could be through increased expression of Gabra2. Stress and treatment with the stress neuropeptide, CRH, significantly increase the activity of the BNST neurons in females but not males (Sterrenburg et al., 2012; Babb et al., 2013; Salvatore et al., 2018).