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.
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