Provided herein are compounds of the formula (I): as well as stereoisomers and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. Such compounds are, because of their ability to antagonize CRF, useful in the treatment of a variety of disorders characterized by execssive CRF expression. These include, for example: affective disorder, anxiety, depression, headache, irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, supranuclear palsy, immune suppression, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, gastrointestinal diseases, anorexia nervosa or other feeding disorder, drug addiction, drug or alcohol withdrawal symptoms, inflammatory diseases, cardiovascular or heart-related diseases, fertility problems, human immunodeficiency virus infections, hemorrhagic stress, obesity, infertility, head and spinal cord traumas, epilepsy, stroke, ulcers, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and hypoglycemia.