Fetal alcohol exposure

Caldeira JC, Wu Y, Mameli M, Purdy RH, Li P-K, Akwa Y, Savage DD, Engen JR, Valenzuela CF. 2004. Fetal alcohol exposure alters neurosteroid levels in the developing rat brain. J Neurochem 90 1530-1539. 

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... 

NEUROLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL EFFECTS OF FETAL ALCOHOL EXPOSURE... 

New techniques are being used to locate brain damage from fetal alcohol exposure. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), for example, has been used to analyze the shape of the corpus callosum (the thick band of nerve fibers connecting the two hemispheres of the brain) in adult males who were exposed prenatally to alcohol and relate the measurements to neuropsychological deficits.34 The men showed more variability of corpus-callosum shape and the excess shape variation is associated with behavioral deficits. A relatively thick corpus callosum is associated with deficits in executive function, while a relatively thin corpus callosum is associated with deficits in motor function. 

Fetal alcohol exposure, for example, causes physical, neurological, and psychological impairments that often lead to social maladjustment and subsequent disruptive, violent, and eventually criminal behavior.91 A common FASD impairment is a language deficit that results in poor social communication and consequent social maladjustment.92 Low IQ caused by FASD exacerbates any impairment and makes social maladjustment more likely. 

Children exposed prenatally to alcohol most frequently present with attentional deficits and hyperactivity, even in the absence of intellectual deficits or craniofacial abnormalities. Furthermore, attentional problems have been observed in the absence of hyperactivity, suggesting that the two phenomena are not necessarily related. Fetal alcohol exposure also has been identified as a risk factor for alcohol abuse by adolescents. Apart from the risk of FAS or FAEs to the child, the intake of high amounts of alcohol by a pregnant woman, particularly during the first trimester, greatly increases the chances of spontaneous abortion. 

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. 

Absorption readily absorbed by intestine, food will delay absorption Sensitive individuals fetus (fetal alcohol syndrome - FAS) Toxicity/symptoms developing nervous system very sensitive to low levels of exposure children - lowered IQ, learning and behavioral problems adults — memory loss, inebriation, liver disease, cancer... 

Prenatal exposure to ethanol results in a spectrum of abnormalities including, at one extreme, fetal alcohol syndrome, which includes growth retardation, facial anomalies, mental retardation, and microencephaly. Children with less severe prenatal exposures often lack the characteristic facial features of fetal alcohol syndrome, but suffer from a similar pattern of cognitive deficits (Berman and Hannigan, 2000). Mild exposures are associated with variable deficits in motor development and functional delays (Levitt, 1998). 

PRENATAL EXPOSURE DELAYED EFFECTS ABNORMALITIES, DRUG-INDUCED MATERNAL-FETAL EXCHANGE FETAL ALCOHOL SYNDROME... 

Since the discovery of the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), extensive research has been carried out on the teratogenic effects of alcohol The consequences of early exposure to this substance can serve to illustrate the multiplicity of effects that a chemical can cause. Chronic exposure of the fetus to high levels of alcohol has been found to result in many cases in a large spectrum... 

Benzodiazepines readily pass from the mother to fetus through the placenta (117). There may be a risk of congenital malformations, particularly oral cleft, if a pregnant woman takes a benzodiazepine during the first trimester, but the data are inconsistent across drugs (alprazolam having the most clearly defined risk), and any overall effect is probably small (27,28). The risk of benzodiazepine-induced birth defects thus remains uncertain (118), despite two cases of fetal-alcohol syndrome reported after benzodiazepine exposure alone (119). 

In a 1992 report by Bearer et al, (Bearer, 1992), it was shown that human and mouse placentas have significant FAEE synthase activity and that they can accumulate FAEEs after maternal ethanol exposure, persisting for up to 7 d in the placentas. These studies raised the possibility that the accumulation of FAEEs in placentas is contributory to the embryopathy of fetal alcohol syndrome. 

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. 

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. 

Ethyl alcohol (alcohol, grain alcohol, ethanol, EtOH [CAS 64-17-5]) At high levels, vapors irrltatlhg to eyes and respiratory tract. A CNS depressant at high levels of exposure. Strong evidence for adverse effeots on fetal development In test animals and humans with ohronio ingestion (fetal alcohol syndrome). See also p 190. 

Environmental risk factors include prenatal exposure to drugs such as alcohol and nicotine, obstetric complications, head injury, and psychosocial adversity (Biederman and Faraone, 2005 Romano et al., 2006). Prenatal exposure to ethanol affects mainly dopaminergic transmission and causes hyperactivity (Gibson et al., 2000). Rats exposed to ethanol prenatally show attention deficits that are similar to those of children with fetal alcohol syndrome and ADHD (Hausknecht et al., 2005). 

The health effects of alcohol section is divided into children and adults to emphasize the sensitivity of fetal exposure to alcohol during pregnancy. 

This site provides tool to reduce and manage the effects of fetal exposure to alcohol. 

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