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Sunday, August 10, 2014

FASD News - 31/2014

Medical Daily - Drinking While Pregnant Causes Slow Brain Growth, Learning Difficulties Over Time
Pregnant women may find the nine months they’re carrying a baby difficult, but when it comes to how to be pregnant, there are only a few major rules to live by: eat right, exercise, and avoid caffeine, drugs, and alcohol.
wlfi.com - Special Olympic athlete competing to be on cover of Runner’s World
Born with fetal alcohol syndrome, the accomplished runner overcame mental and physical challenges to excel on his middle and high school cross country teams before joining Special Olympics Indiana.
Alaska Native News - Governor Signs Midwife, FASD Legislation
In a move to ensure greater public safety in the field of midwifery, Governor Sean Parnell signed Senate Bill 156 into law. Sponsored by Senator Pete Kelly, the legislation updates the Certified Direct-Entry Midwife Practice Act. Additionally, the bill requires a certified direct-entry midwife to be licensed, practicing for two years, and attend 50 or more births as a primary or assistant midwife before being able to supervise an apprentice direct-entry midwife.
ABC Online (Australia) - Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder inquiry told men drinking could be as much to blame as women
An inquiry on Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) has been told men could be just as responsible for causing the condition as women.
IANS - Mother's alcohol consumption may make kids dull
Expecting mothers may give their drinking glass a goodbye kiss as researchers have found that parental alcohol exposure weakens brain activation in their children.
Yahoo!7 News (Australia) - NT govt focusing on pregnant drinkers
High-flying career women in the inner city and Aboriginal women living in remote communities are both looking down the barrel of the same gun: the risk of having babies with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).
Consumer Health Research - FASD Social Skills Training: For Children and Parents
FASD, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, is a disorder that causes many children and adolescents who had pre-natal exposure to alcohol have difficulty developing friendships and social skills. Many do not know how to pick friends or initiate conversations.

MATERIALS, VIDEOS
International FASD day packet
Funding provided in part by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The contents of this packet are the sole responsibility of the organizations that developed it and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

RESEARCH
Front. Genet - Genomic factors that shape craniofacial outcome and neural crest vulnerability in FASD
Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) causes distinctive facial characteristics in some pregnancies and not others; genetic factors may contribute to this differential vulnerability. Ethanol disrupts multiple events of neural crest development, including induction, survival, migration, and differentiation.
Science Daily - Prenatal alcohol exposure alters development of brain function: Neural basis for symptoms of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders
In the first study of its kind, Prapti Gautam, PhD, and colleagues from The Saban Research Institute of Children's Hospital Los Angeles found that children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) showed weaker brain activation during specific cognitive tasks than their unaffected counterparts.
Neuroscience - Prenatal ethanol exposure differentially affects hippocampal neurogenesis in the adolescent and aged brain
Exposure to ethanol in utero is associated with a myriad of sequelae for the offspring. Some of these effects are morphological in nature and noticeable from birth, while others involve more subtle changes to the brain that only become apparent later in life when the individuals are challenged cognitively.
Cereb. Cortex - Developmental Trajectories for Visuo-Spatial Attention are Altered by Prenatal Alcohol Exposure: A Longitudinal FMRI Study
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) reveals brain activation abnormalities during visuo-spatial attention and working memory among those with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) in cross-sectional reports, but little is known about how activation changes over time during development within FASD or typically developing children.
Alcohol - Impact of Combined Prenatal Ethanol and Prenatal Stress Exposures on Markers of Activity-Dependent Synaptic Plasticity in Rat Dentate Gyrus
Prenatal ethanol exposure and prenatal stress can each cause long-lasting deficits in hippocampal synaptic plasticity and disrupt learning and memory processes. However, the mechanisms underlying these perturbations following a learning event are still poorly understood.
Alcoholism - Fetal Alcohol Programming of Hypothalamic Proopiomelanocortin System by Epigenetic Mechanisms and Later Life Vulnerability to Stress
Hypothalamic proopiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons, one of the major regulators of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, immune functions, and energy homeostasis, are vulnerable to the adverse effects of fetal alcohol exposure (FAE).
Alcohol and Alcoholism - Prenatal Ethanol Exposure Up-Regulates the Cholesterol Transporters ATP-Binding Cassette A1 and G1 and Reduces Cholesterol Levels in the Developing Rat Brain
Maternal ethanol consumption may affect fetal brain development by increasing cholesterol transporters’ expression and reducing brain cholesterol levels.
Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology - Maternal Alcohol Consumption during Pregnancy and the Risk of Orofacial Clefts in Infants: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
The teratogenic effects of maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy include anomalies of craniofacial structures derived from the cranial neural crest cells. The presence of specific craniofacial anomalies contributes to the diagnosis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth - Alcohol brief interventions in Scottish antenatal care: a qualitative study of midwives’ attitudes and practices
Midwives recognised the important role they could play in alcohol intervention activities in antenatal care. As the majority of women stop consuming alcohol in pregnancy, many will not need an ABI.

IN OTHER LANGUAGES
nowiny.pl (Poland) - Biskupi przeciwko pijaństwu: Kochająca matka zawsze trzeźwa
Trwamy w dziękczynieniu za historyczną kanonizację Jana Pawła II, który uczył nas, że święci nie przemijają, lecz pragną naszej świętości. Podejmujemy osobisty i narodowy rachunek sumienia z wierności słowom naszego nowego Świętego - czytamy w Apelu Zespołu Konferencji Episkopatu Polski ds. Apostolstwa Trzeźwości na sierpień 2014 r.
AGI - Agenzia Giornalistica Italia (Italy) - Alcol: esposizione prenatale altera sviluppo cervello
I bambini con Disturbo dello spettro fetale alcolico (Fasd) potrebbero avere problemi nello sviluppo del cervello. Uno studio del The Saban Research Institute of Children's Hospital di Los Angeles ha infatti scoperto che il Fasd e' legato a un'attivazione piu' debole del cervello durante compiti cognitivi specifici.
STERN.DE (Germany) - Mit diesen Schäden müssen Kinder leben
Ein Glas Sekt kann Folgen haben. Welche, das beschreibt "Zeit Online" anhand der Geschichte von Lisa. Die Zwölfjährige wird nie normal leben können, weil ihre Mutter in der Schwangerschaft trank.

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