NEWS and
ARTICLES
EurekAlert - Fetal alcohol exposure affects
brain structure in children
Children exposed to alcohol during fetal
development exhibit changes in brain structure and metabolism that are visible
using various imaging techniques, according to a new study being presented today
at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
Los Angeles Times - Pregnant women: Just
don't drink, study suggests
After years of confusing and contradictory
advice about alcohol consumption during pregnancy, a new study may have the
final word: Just don’t drink. The study, published Wednesday in the journal PLoS
ONE, reveals that even a few drinks a week by an expectant mother can lead to
reductions in a child’s IQ if the child has certain genetic variations impairing
their ability to break down alcohol.
Vancouver Sun (Canada) - Paradigm shift in
neuroscience sparks new FASD research in B.C
Despite 40 years of research, medicine has
little to offer in the way of treatments after FASD prevention fails. Doctors
have long held that brain damage caused by alcohol cannot be corrected.
Maple Ridge News (Canada) - Bylaw to help
prevent drinking while pregnant
If you’re curious about what’s like to live with
fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, have a chat with Katrina Griffin. She can
explain how her early life began, when she was born at 24 weeks, spent six
months in intensive care and 18 months on oxygen and how having FASD hurts her
short-term memory and how she’s spent her life dealing with the condition.
University of Bristol - Even moderate
drinking in pregnancy can affect a child’s IQ
Relatively small levels of exposure to alcohol
while in the womb can influence a child’s IQ, according to a new study,
published today in PLOS ONE, by researchers from the Universities of Bristol and
Oxford using Children of the 90s study (ALSPAC) data from over 4,000 mothers and
their offspring.
The Vancouver Sun - Maternal drinking casts
lifelong shadow for children growing up with fetal alcohol spectrum
disorder
Neufeld’s daughter has fetal alcohol spectrum
disorder (FASD). While she grew in the womb, her birth mother drank alcohol. The
substance penetrated the placenta and attacked the growing girl, leaving parts
of her brain permanently shrunk, scrambled, or simply missing.
Maple Ridge News - Warning about alcohol and
pregnancy
The district wants to do its part to get out the
message, if you’re expecting and drinking – there is no safe limit. So part of
its new business licence bylaw requires bars, restaurants and U-brew stores to
post signs reminding people of the above and the dangers of Fetal Alcohol
Spectrum Disorder.
UNSW Australia (Australia) - FASD carers
carry heavy life-time burden
In an Australian first, researchers have reached
out to families and carers affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)
to identify gaps in existing services.
Kitchener Post - New strategies discussed at
FASD forum
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) affects
approximately nine in every 1,000 births, and for those children and adults,
traditional methods of teaching and discipline just don’t work, according to Dan
Dubovsky, a mental health professional and social worker who spoke at an FASD
conference at Bingemans Monday.
RESEARCH
The Journal of Neuroscience - A Longitudinal
Study of the Long-Term Consequences of Drinking during Pregnancy: Heavy In Utero
Alcohol Exposure Disrupts the Normal Processes of Brain Development
Exposure to alcohol in utero can cause birth
defects, including face and brain abnormalities, and is the most common
preventable cause of intellectual disabilities. Here we use structural magnetic
resonance imaging to measure cortical volume change longitudinally in a cohort
of human children and youth with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and a group of
unexposed control subjects, demonstrating that the normal processes of brain
maturation are disrupted in individuals whose mothers drank heavily during
pregnancy.
PLOS One - Fetal Alcohol Exposure and IQ at
Age 8: Evidence from a Population-Based Birth-Cohort Study
Observational studies have generated conflicting
evidence on the effects of moderate maternal alcohol consumption during
pregnancy on offspring cognition mainly reflecting problems of confounding.
Among mothers who drink during pregnancy fetal alcohol exposure is influenced
not only by mother’s intake but also by genetic variants carried by both the
mother and the fetus.
Translational Psychiatry - Stem cell therapy:
social recognition recovery in a FASD model
To better understand the cellular pathogenetic
mechanisms of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and the therapeutic benefit
of stem cell treatment, we exposed pregnant rats to ethanol followed by
intravenous administration of neural stem cells (NSCs) complexed with
atelocollagen to the new born rats and studied recovery of GABAergic interneuron
numbers and synaptic protein density in the anterior cingulate cortex,
hippocampus and amygdala.
MATERIALS
and VIDEOS
Second European Conference on FASD
"Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Clinical and
Biological Diagnosis Screening and Follow-up"
NeuroDevNet - NeuroDevNet's FASD Project,
CAPHC and PHAC Partnered for CAPHC's Webinar Series
Canadian Association of Pediatric Health Centres
(CAPHC)'s Canadian Network for Child and Youth Rehabilitation (CN-CYR), in
partnership with Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and NeuroDevNet, is
facilitating a series of webinars to extend the discussion of FASD to include
more in depth information on various areas of interest including diagnosis of
FASD, interventions and service delivery models.
Helpful Teaching Techniques for use Students
with FASD
NOFAS - Carolyn Szetela on FASD - Southeast
Regional FASD Training Center
NOFAS - Jeanne Mahoney of ACOG - OB/GYNs
& FASD
UPCOMING
The 5th International Conference on Fetal
Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
This conference brings together experts from
many disciplines to share international research, to discuss the implications of
this research, and to promote scientific/community collaboration.
What's Working in FASD? Interventions That
Are Making a Difference!
Screening and diagnosis of FASD are important
issues, but if we see a positive diagnosis, what then? Join us as we take a look
at what the research is telling us about what is working to help children
affected FASD.
IN OTHER
LANGUAGES
Ärzte Zeitung (Germany) - Ärzte als Aufklärer
gefragt
Alkohol in der Schwangerschaft ist viel
gefährlicher als Rauchen. Das Zellgift kann ein Kind bei seiner Entwicklung im
Mutterleib schwer und irreversibel schädigen, betroffen ist dabei vor allem das
Nervensystem.
L'Impronta L'Aquila (Italy) - Allarme della
Società italiana sulla sindrome feto-alcolica, in Italia 30 mila
bambini
Il 5 per cento dei bambini che nascono in Italia
è affetto da sindrome feto alcolica (Fasd-una patologia legata al consumo di
alcol della madre in gravidanza). Una cifra preoccupante visto che si tratta di
circa 25-30 mila bambini ogni anno. Non sempre la patologia si manifesta in
forma grave, cioè in una vera e propria disabilità cognitiva.
ANSA.it (Italy) - 25 mila bimbi colpiti da
sindrome feto-alcolica
Difficolta' nell'apprendimento verbale, nella
memoria, nelle abilita' visuo-spaziali e logico-matematiche, nell'attenzione,
nella velocita' di elaborazione delle informazioni. Questi gli handicap a cui
sono condannati oltre 25 mila bambini colpiti da sindrome feto alcolica in
Italia, che nascono cioe' da madri bevitrici o che hanno continuato ad assumere
alcol in gravidanza.
