Binge Ethanol exposure (DIV 6-11) consistently prolongs GABAA receptor (GABAAR)-mediated miniature postsynaptic current (mPSC) decay kinetics (DuBois et al., Dev.Br.Res. 152:199-212, 2004) and blunts potentiation by zolpidem, a positive modulator of *alpha*1 subunit-containing GABAARs (DuBois & Frye, SfN Abst. 33:108.1, 2003) on DIV 13-17 in rat septal neurons cultured on embryonic day 20. Previous studies showed that finasteride, a 5*alpha*-reductase inhibitor, can partially reverse some effects of ethanol (Morrow et al., Alc.Clin.Exp.Res. 23:1933-1940, 1999), including prolonged GABAergic mPSC decay caused by Binge Ethanol exposure (Mieckowski et al., SfN Abst. 34:913.8, 2004). The present study examined whether finasteride could prevent ethanol-induced blunting of zolpidem potentiation of GABAergic mPSC decay. Pretreatment with finasteride (1 *mu*M, on DIV 5 remaining in the media thru DIV 11) restored the potentiating action of acutely applied zolpidem (1 or 10 *mu*M) on DIV 13-18 in neurons receiving ...