Fetal alcohol disorders

In Part II, we consider some of the postnatal costs of those influences and examine the strong evidence that the prenatal environment is related to various behavioral dysfunctions or anomalies and to deficits in intelligence. The chapters in this part cover fetal alcohol disorders, transsexuality, developmental disabilities such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, and psychosis, as well as the emotional frameworks that give rise to a few other mental disorders. The important question of individual IQ is also addressed, including the controversies about its measurement in IQ tests (what are such tests Do their scores signify anything How is their reputed significance used ) and the extent to which the prenatal environment comes into play in the variance of IQ. 

Fetal alcohol syndrome A congenital disorder arising from excessive (>50g per day) alcohol intake during pregnancy. 

Toxicologists nowadays take a broad view of developmental toxicity they consider not only structural but also functional abnormalities to qualify as adverse, as long as they were produced as a result of exposures incurred in utero. Thus, for example, the developmental effects of chronic alcohol abuse by pregnant women, known as fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), are characterized not only by the presence of certain craniofacial abnormalities, but also by a variety of disabilities such as shortened attention span, speech disorders, and restlessness. Although fully expressed physical deformities included in FAS are associated with heavy drinking, debate continues on the level of alcohol consumption, if any, that is without these more subtle effects on behavior. 

Mitochondrial disorders are not commonly regarded as causes of malformations. Facial features included round face, high forehead, small nose, and long flat philtrum, reminiscent of the fetal alcohol syndrome. Limb and trunk involvements included short hands, brachydactyly, hypoplasia of the distal and middle phalanges, hypoplastic nails, and the VACTERL [vertebral anomalies, anal atresia, cardiovascular anomalies, tracheoesophageal fistula, esophageal atresia, renal (kidney) and/or radial anomalies, and preaxial limb anomalies (in front of or above the central axis of the limb)] association [50]. 

Wilkemeyer (4) determined that 3-pentanol, 2-pentanol, cyclopentanol, 4-methyl -1-pentanol, 2-methyl-2-pentanol, and 2,6-diisopropylphenol were effective in mitigating alcohol-induced cell adhesion disorders associated with alcohol addiction in adults, fetal alcohol syndrome, and neuropsychiatric behavioral disorders. 

Barr, H. M., 8c Streissguth, A. P. (2001). Identifying maternal self-reported alcohol use associated with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research, 25, 28.3-287. 

Rasmussen, C. (2005). Executive functioning and working memory in fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research, 29, 1359-1367. 

Very many chemicals are recognized teratogens in animals a significantly smaller subset of these is known or suspected to be developmental neurotoxicants in humans. Some of the more significant of the latter group include ethanol, which causes a constellation of effects ranging from fetal alcohol syndrome to alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder maternal smoking of tobacco (fetal tobacco syndrome) excess vitamins A and D heavy metals, particularly... 

Sanderson JL, Donald Partridge L, Valenzuela CF (2009) Modulation of GABAergic and glu-tamatergic transmission by ethanol in the developing neocortex an in vitro test of the excessive inhibition hypothesis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Neuropharmacology 56 541-555... 

The consequences of fetal alcohol exposure range from subtle to serious damage. The term fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (LASD) refers to any alcohol-related defects. The less severe... 

Since speech and language acquisition develop relatively late in children, separating prenatal and postnatal effects on their development is often impossible. Known factors include the general social effects of poverty combined with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, producing deficits in children in language performance.28 Other factors common in a poverty environment and known to affect language performance are prenatal exposure to cocaine and tobacco.29... 

Arriving at the ADHD diagnosis is particularly problematic when you consider that not all children diagnosed with ADHD show the same behavior, and that some toxins produce some but not all of the behavior of the ADHD disorder. For example, fetal exposure to alcohol can produce fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, but some of the symptoms of that disorder are very similar to some of the symptoms of ADHD. 

The result Currently, 3.5 percent of the children in Lazio have the markers of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FAST)).2 That s the highest prevalence of FASD in the Western world and more than three times the prevalence in the United States. 

Ceccanti, M., Alessandra-Spagnolo, P., Tarani, L., Luisa-Attilia, M., Chessa, L., Mancinelli, R., Stegagno, M., Francesco Sasso, G., Romeo, M., Jones, K. L., Robinson, L. K., Del Campo, M., Phillip-Gossage, J., May, P. A., Eugene-Hoyme, H. (2007). Clinical delineation of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) in Italian children comparison and contrast with other racial/ ethnic groups and implications for diagnosis and prevention. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 31 270—277. 

Coggins, T. E., Timler, G. R., Olswang, L. B. (2007). A state of double jeopardy impact of prenatal alcohol exposure and adverse environments on the social communicative abilities of school-age children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Lang. Speech. Hear. Serv. Sch. 38 117—127. 

Kodituwakku, P. W. (2007). Defining the behavioral phenotype in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders a review. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 31 192—201. 

Wattendorf, D. J. Muenke, M. (2005). Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Am. Family Physician. 72 279—285. 

ADHD should not be diagnosed if the symptoms can be better accounted for by other mental disorders, such as mood disorder, Tourette s syndrome, anxiety disorder, dissociative disorder, personality disorder, personality change due to a general medical condition, or a substance-related disorder (e.g., due to bronchodilators, isoniazid, akathisia from neuroleptics). Moreover, ADHD is not diagnosed when symptoms occur exclusively during the course of a pervasive developmental disorder or psychotic disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Conditions other than ADHD, such as neurofibromatosis, fetal alcohol syndrome and lead poisoning, of which ADHD features are typical symptoms (Pearl et al., 2001), should also be ruled out. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs) available at http //www.cdc.gov/ ncbddd/fas/fasask.htm (accessed September 15, 2009). 

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are a group of conditions that can occur in a person whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy.. .. These conditions can affect each person in different ways, and can range from mild to severe. 

Another fat-soluble vitamin, E, was found by Evans and Bishop in 1923. Pregnant rats on a defined diet (alcohol-extracted casein, cornstarch, and lard) supplemented with butter (vitamins A and D) and yeast extract (vitamin B group) produced few young because of fetal resorption. Male rats on the same diet were sterile. The disorders, which have not been identified in man, were corrected by wheat-germ oil, from which tocopherol, the active ingredient, was isolated in 1936. In spite of intensive investigations and a recognition that the vitamin is an antioxidant and destroyer of free radicals, the function of vitamin E remains obscure. 

Folic acid deficiency, unlike vitamin B12 deficiency, is often caused by inadequate dietary intake of folates. Alcoholics and patients with liver disease develop folic acid deficiency because of poor diet and diminished hepatic storage of folates. There is also evidence that alcohol and liver disease interfere with absorption and metabolism of folates. Pregnant women and patients with hemolytic anemia have increased folate requirements and may become folic acid-deficient, especially if their diets are marginal. Evidence implicates maternal folic acid deficiency in the occurrence of fetal neural tube defects, eg, spina bifida. (See Folic Acid Supplementation A Public Health Dilemma.) Patients with malabsorption syndromes also frequently develop folic acid deficiency. Folic acid deficiency is occasionally associated with cancer, leukemia, myeloproliferative disorders, certain chronic skin disorders, and other chronic debilitating diseases. Patients who require renal dialysis also develop folic acid deficiency, because folates are removed from the plasma each time the patient is dialyzed. 

And the prevalence of alcohol-related fetal abnormalities The incidence of FASD in the United States is currently approximately 1 per 100 live births.22 This means that this disorder may affect about 1 percent (3 million children and adults) of the total American population and occurs more often than Down syndrome and spina bifida combined. The U.S. prevalence rate of the more severe form, FAS, is much less, ranging from about 5 to 50 per 10,000 live births, depending on geographic location and ethnic group.23 Blacks and American Indians have the... 

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