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Sunday, October 3, 2021

FASD News - 39/2021

NZ Herald (New Zealand) - Damning report says governments have breached rights of people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
A damning new report from the Human Rights Commission warns thousands of people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder have been denied support and had their human rights breached because they don't fit an "arbitrary" measure of disability.
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Global News (Canada) - Experts fear pandemic drinking habits could lead to a rise in fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased alcohol use, skyrocketing stress levels and limited mental health and addiction services. Experts suspect that combination could lead to more cases of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
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CHEK News (Canada) - ‘Like living in a tornado’: Island woman living with FASD opens up about the condition
Lauren Richardson said she has felt like an outsider most of her life as the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder she was born with makes it hard to cope.
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Government of Northwest Territories (Canada) - Videos Launched to support FASD Awareness Month
The Department of Health and Social Services has developed two public awareness videos on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) to bring attention to the importance of diagnosis, and how the public can help support individuals living with FASD.
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Sarasota Herald Tribune (USA) - Kathryn Shea FASD Clinic named in honor of longtime Sarasota advocate
The Florida Center for Early Childhood held a dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday honoring its former CEO, Kathryn Shea.
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Senator Susan Collins (USA) - Senator Collins Co-Sponsors Bill to Prevent Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Among Women and Children
U.S. Senator Susan Collins co-sponsored the Advancing FASD Research, Services, and Prevention Act of 2021 (FASD Respect Act). The legislation addresses prenatal substance exposure through early intervention—by providing support through programs and funding for prevention efforts and for individuals and families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).
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CTV Saskatoon (Canada) - Sask. man advocates for those living with FASD
What began as a journey of healing for Niall Schofield has turned into an advocacy mission to help people understand living with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
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IOL (South Africa) - Ignorance is the main contributing factor to high FASD prevalence in South Africa
South Africa is notorious for having the highest prevalence rate of Foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) in the world, with rates ranging from 29 to 290 per 1 000 live births.
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Daily Echo (UK) - How drinking alcohol in pregnancy could harm your baby
IT'S an uncomfortable truth, but we are rapidly coming to the conclusion that no level of alcohol can be deemed entirely safe, despite the UK government’s advice of 14 or fewer units per week, spread out, with several alcohol-free days.
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Maine Public (USA) - Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: How FASDs Occur, Why They Go Undiagnosed, What Can Be Done to Help Children With These Conditions
September is International FASD Awareness Month. Most children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) are never diagnosed or are misdiagnosed.
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Planet Radio (UK) - Over 1,000 GM children per year affected by drinking during pregnancy
Over 1,000 children are being born every year in Greater Manchester who could be at risk of lifelong conditions caused by drinking during pregnancy.
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Waatea News (Australia) - Data gap hinders fetal alcohol response
The Associate Commissioner for Children is backing a call from Māori public health advocates Hāpai Te Hauora for immediate action from the government on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
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Hawaii Public Radio (USA) - Understanding the Lasting Effects of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
September is National Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Awareness Month. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says six to nine out of every 1,000 school-aged children in the U.S. suffer from the effects of alcohol consumed during a mother’s pregnancy.
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HeraldNet (USA) - Bothell clinic helps kids exposed to drugs and alcohol
As soon as Luke could crawl up a couch, he was trying to jump off it. His adoptive parents had to lock up everything in their house. Otherwise, he’d get in and wreak havoc. A few weeks ago, the 6-year-old accidentally put water in their car’s gas tank. His mother Joanne calls him a “sensory seeker.”
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VIDEOS and MATERIALS
The Scottish Parliament - Members' Business — S6M-01089 Siobhian Brown: FASD Awareness Day (9 September)
That the Parliament recognises International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Awareness Day on 9 September, which was first recognised in 1999; notes that the day helps to raise awareness about the range of conditions that can result from alcohol consumption during pregnancy;
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FASD Hub Australia - What I want the world to know about FASD
We asked a group of adults, young people and caregivers with lived experience to share what they wish people knew about FASD.
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WION - South Africa reports highest number of FASD cases
September is the international FASD awareness month. South Africa has highest number of FASD.
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HSSCommunications - The Importance of a Diagnosis in Individuals with F.A.S.D.
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AlcoholFreePregnancy - We Are FASD United
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Adopt4LifeON - Snack and Chat - FASD Changemakers
Join the discussion with CJ Lutke and Myles Himmelreich of FASD Changemakers - where they share their insights and knowledge and offer advice to parents and caregivers raising children with FASD.
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AlcoholFreePregnancy - "The Drum Is Medicine" - Healthy Native Nation
In observance of September 9th (9/9) Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Awareness Day we would like to premier NOFAS/Healthy Native Nation FASD awareness videos. Thank you to all who took part in creating these for all to enjoy.
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Manitoba FASD Coalition - Visions and Voices presents: Conversations on FASD with Jessica Siddle
For the 2021 #FASDmonth celebrations Visions and Voices developed and are proud to present Conversations on FASD. Please take a few moments to enjoy Jessica Siddle's message and conversation around FASD!
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POPFASD - Get Ready, Do, Done
Executive Function is a set of mental skills and it includes the ability to plan and organize materials and complete tasks. Kristen Jacobsen (M.S., CCC/SLP) and Sarah Ward (M.S., CCC/SLP) from Cognitive Connections https://www.efpractice.com/ have developed the "Get Ready, Do, Done" approach to helping students plan and carry out activities in a timely fashion.
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FASD Awareness #BeAware - Why we need to think differently about FASD
Here is a short video for FASD Awareness Month 2021. With an introduction by celebrity gardener Mark Lane.
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Amanda Coates - FASD Network
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Able2 - Rein FASD Awareness Walk Fall 2021
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RESEARCH
Nutrients - Alcohol’s Impact on the Fetus
The impact of alcohol on fetal health and social outcomes later in life is enormous, placing a huge economic burden on countries. Prevention of prenatal alcohol exposure and early identification of affected individuals should be a global public health priority.
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Health - ‘Think before you drink’: Challenging narratives on foetal alcohol spectrum disorder and indigeneity in Canada
Health experts increasingly acknowledge that the disproportionate impact of FASD on indigenous people is driven by social and historical contexts, especially in settler colonial states like Canada.
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International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction - Screening for Alcohol Use in Pregnancy: a Review of Current Practices and Perspectives
By implementing consistent alcohol use screening, prenatal care providers have the opportunity to facilitate access to counseling and brief interventions and thus, to prevent new cases of FASD and improve maternal and child health.
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University of Calgary - Memory Profiles of Children and Youth with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure: The Potential Role of Postnatal Risks
Findings from the current study are consistent with the literature that documents verbal memory deficits within PAE populations; however, additional research on the potential associations between postnatal exposures and developmental outcomes within this population is needed. Areas for future research directions are discussed as well as study clinical implications and limitations.
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Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research - Prenatal alcohol and cannabis exposure can have opposing and region-specific effects on parvalbumin interneuron numbers in the hippocampus
Prenatal exposure to alcohol and THC differentially affects parvalbumin-positive interneuron numbers in the hippocampus, indicating that both individual and combined exposure can impact the balance of excitation and inhibition in a structure critically involved in learning and memory processes.
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Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research - Sex-specific effect of prenatal alcohol exposure on N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor function in orbitofrontal cortex pyramidal neurons of mice
These findings suggest that low-to-moderate PAE modulates NMDAR function in pyramidal neurons in a sex-specific manner, although we did not find evidence that the effect is mediated by dysfunction of synaptic GluN2B subunit-containing NMDARs.
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UC San Diego - Sleep and Neurobehavioral Outcomes in Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
Interventions targeting variability in sleep, particularly sleep duration variability, may improve sleep quality and some aspects of cognition and behavior in children with FASD.
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SIGMA Repository - NPWH position statement: Prevention of alcohol exposed pregnancies [April 2021 Update]
The National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health (NPWH) advocates for the use of evidence-based strategies by women’s health nurse practitioners (WHNPs) and other advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) who provide healthcare for reproductive-age women to prevent alcohol-exposed pregnancies (AEPs).
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University of the Western Cape - A scoping review of the determinants of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder in South Africa: an intersectional perspective
A critical stance towards the victim/active agent dichotomy that often frames women who drink during pregnancy opens up space to understand the nuances needed to support the women involved while also illustrating the contextual barriers to drinking cessation that need to be addressed through holistic approaches.
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Research Square - Alcohol Consumption by Women in the Previous Year Who Were Unaware They Were Pregnant
Pregnant women and women of reproductive age, who are in risk groups and have a high vulnerability, should take priority for interventions related to substance use, especially alcohol.
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University of Lethbridge - Consequences of maternal preconception nicotine and alcohol: a rodent model of the long-term effects on offspring brain and behavior
The overall goal of this thesis is to highlight how maternal experiences prior to conception can have just as significant an impact on offspring development as much more thoroughly studied prenatal experiences.
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Government of Canada - At-a-glance - Prevalence of alcohol use among women of reproductive age in Canada
This information can guide health care providers in assessing alcohol consumption and in promoting low-risk alcohol drinking to prevent alcohol exposure during pregnancy.
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Neonatology - Ignored Papers, Invented Quotations: A History of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Given the high rate of alcoholism throughout history, its effects on the fetus may have existed for millennia. But, the claim that Greeks and Romans were aware of fetal alcohol syndrome rests on incorrect citations.
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Journal of Neurophysiology - Effects of prenatal ethanol exposure on choline-induced long-term depression in the hippocampus
This study provides a novel insight into how choline can modulate hippocampal transmission at the level of the synapse and that it can have unique effects following PNEE.
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Alcohol - Growth and Behavioral Differences in a C56BL/6J Mouse Model of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure
This mouse model of PAE, using a repeated intermediate exposure, produces modest behavioral impairments that are consistent along the continuum of PAE models, including deficits in associative memory and hyper-responsivity.
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The Cardinal Edge - The Effects of Alcohol on the Developing Drosophila Nervous System
Ethanol is the most common human teratogen, contributing to fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) when effects are the most severe. Key effects of fetal alcohol syndrome are observed in the nervous system.
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Advances in Neurodevelopmental Disorders - The Association Between Executive Functioning, Attention, and Adaptive Functioning Among Children and Adolescents with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure
Although none of the correlations were indicative of convergent validity, our results suggest a lack of discriminant validity across the measures. The findings suggest that our assessment tools were measuring distinct but overlapping constructs, and this overlap should be considered in future research on clinical decision-making regarding diagnosis and interventions that target these areas of functioning.
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Curtin University - Oral and written communication skills of adolescents in youth justice with and without prenatal alcohol exposure
This research investigated the communication skills of adolescents in youth detention in Western Australia (WA), a context in which fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is highly prevalent and Aboriginal young peoples are over-represented.
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Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research - Where there's a will, there's a way? Strategies to reduce or abstain from alcohol use developed by Northern Plains American Indian women participating in a brief alcohol-exposed pregnancy preconceptual intervention
Programs may need to provide participants more support to develop strong strategies to reduce alcohol use when implemented within areas with increased trauma and contextual barriers that can impact strategy selection, which may include ways to improve health on interpersonal and community levels.
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Contemporary OB/GYN - Breastfeeding and alcohol: Do they mix?
An editorial is presented in which the author discusses the risks of drinking alcohol while breastfeeding. The author reports the increased frequency of alcohol consumption in women during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Stuttgarter Nachrichten (Germany) - Jährlich mehr als tausend Säuglinge alkoholgeschädigt
Die Landesstelle für Suchtfragen hat Zahlen zur alkoholbedingten Schädigung von Säuglingen veröffentlicht. Die Dunkelziffer soll die offizielle Zahl sogar noch übersteigen.
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Rynek Zdrowia (Poland) - FAS. We Wrocławiu rusza centrum pomocy dzieciom ze Spektrum Płodowych Zburzeń Alkoholowych
Na Dolnym Śląsku ruszyło pierwsze w tym regionie Centrum Diagnostyki i Terapii FAS. Dzieci i młodzież obciążone Spektrum Płodowych Zaburzeń Alkoholowych otrzymają tu bezpłatną opiekę medyczną.
Przy „marszałkowskiej” jednostce - Dziennym Ośrodku Psychiatrii i Zaburzeń Mowy dla Dzieci i Młodzieży we Wrocławiu - rozpoczyna działalność Centrum Diagnostyki i Terapii FAS, w którym dzieci i młodzież obciążone Spektrum Płodowych Zaburzeń Alkoholowych otrzymają bezpłatną opiekę medyczną.
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PebMed (Brazil) - Dia Mundial da Prevenção à Síndrome Alcoólica Fetal: o que a exposição ao álcool na gravidez gera?
A síndrome alcoólica fetal (SAF) é atribuída à ingestão de álcool na gestação. Infelizmente, essa síndrome é a maior causadora de retardo mental prevenível.
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Prawo.pl (Poland) - We Wrocławiu otwarto Centrum Diagnostyki i Terapii FAS
We Wrocławiu rozpoczęło swoją działalność, pierwsze w tym regionie centrum dla dzieci i młodzieży dotkniętych alkoholowym zespołem płodowym (FAS).
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