In adult rodents, CRF-expressing cells in the amygdala are involved with behavioral and sympathetic nervous system responses to pain and threatening environments (Beggs et al., 2012; Rouwette et al., 2012) and are altered during the chronification of pain in arthritis and neuropathic pain models (Ulrich-Lai et al., 2006; Ji et al., 2007; Neugebauer et al., 2020). Here, CRH is linked to arthritic joint disease.