Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Causes, Symptoms & Diagnosis

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Drinking alcohol during this time can cause damage to how body parts develop. And as the baby continues to develop in the womb, it’s damaging to drink at any time during pregnancy. If you adopted a child or are providing foster care, you may not know if the biological mother drank alcohol while pregnant. International adoption from some countries may have a higher rate of alcohol use by pregnant mothers.

S2 File. Differential gene expression results.

There is no “safe” amount of alcohol you can drink during pregnancy. And there is no time during pregnancy when it’s considered safe to drink alcohol, either. The symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome tend to get worse as a person grows up. Because brain growth takes place throughout pregnancy, stopping alcohol use will improve the baby’s health and well-being.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

S1 File. Supporting information figures.

67% of genes altered in PAE-Low were also altered in PAE-Mid at E14, indicating shared mechanisms on brain size reduction (Table 2). In contrast, only 30% of the genes in the PAE-Low overlapped with PAE-Mid at P0, suggesting that despite initial shared mechanisms, middle and low weight brains diverge transcriptomically after alcohol exposure ceases. At both E14 and P0, the overlap of DEGs when comparing the PAE-Mid to Control versus comparing to PAE-Norm was high (84% and 82%, respectively). For PAE-Mid, 26% of genes altered at P0 were also altered at E14, these genes representing transcriptomic changes in response to alcohol that persist after cessation of PAE.

By 1977, this research facilitated NIAAA issuing the first government health advisory to limit alcohol use during pregnancy. Now, after 50 years, NIAAA continues to provide leadership and support as the largest funder of biomedical research on FASD in the United States. To diagnose fetal alcohol syndrome, doctors look for unusual facial features, lower-than-average height and weight, small head size, problems with attention and hyperactivity, and poor coordination. They also try to find out whether the mother drank while they were pregnant and if so, how much.

Symptoms and Causes

Some of the most severe problems happen when a pregnant person drinks in the first trimester, when the baby’s brain starts to develop. The brain is still developing then, and even moderate amounts of alcohol can disturb this process. The symptoms of this condition will be with the person throughout their entire life.

  1. However, recognizing the problem early and getting treatment for symptoms of the disorder can improve outcomes for your child.
  2. Therefore, it is critical that every effort be made to collect alcohol consumption information using methods that maximize accurate disclosure.
  3. These conditions can affect each person in different ways and can range from mild to severe.
  4. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is one of the most complex disorders under the FASD umbrella.

A report of the study appears in EclinicalMedicine, an online journal published by The Lancet. Any amount of alcohol during pregnancy can cause fetal alcohol syndrome. Damage to your developing baby can happen at any point during pregnancy. All alcohol, including beer, wine, ciders and hard liquor can all cause FAS. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are a group of conditions that can occur in a person who was exposed to alcohol before birth. FASDs are preventable if a baby is not exposed to alcohol before birth.

Treatment for the mother’s alcohol misuse can help with better parenting and prevent future pregnancies from being affected. If you know or think you have a problem with alcohol or recreational drugs, ask a healthcare professional or mental health professional for help. If one child in a family is diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome, it may be important to evaluate siblings for fetal alcohol syndrome if the mother drank alcohol during these pregnancies. It’s not known whether a father’s drinking affects their sperm or contributes to fetal alcohol syndrome at conception. A child with fetal alcohol syndrome needs to be watched closely to see if their treatment needs to be adjusted.

The result of alcohol on a developing fetus can lead to craniofacial differences, growth impairment, neurodevelopmental disabilities, and behavioral issues. Research shows that alcohol exposure at specific times during pregnancy can affect the brain in various ways, resulting in a spectrum of brain disorders. Prevention of fetal alcohol syndrome is the responsibility of all healthcare workers. The composition diagnostic team varies based on the age of the patient. In general, the diagnostic team includes a pediatrician and/or physician who may have expertise in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, nurse practitioner, social worker, occupational therapist, speech-language pathologist, and psychologist.

Damage can be done in the first few weeks of pregnancy when a woman might not yet know that she is pregnant. When a pregnant woman drinks alcohol, some maverick house sober living of that alcohol easily passes across the placenta to the fetus. The body of a developing fetus doesn’t process alcohol the same way as an adult does. The alcohol is more concentrated in the fetus, and it can prevent enough nutrition and oxygen from getting to the fetus’s vital organs. People with FAS may have problems with their vision, hearing, memory, attention span, and abilities to learn and communicate.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) encompasses the deleterious consequences of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure (PAE), including developmental delay, microcephaly, dysmorphologies, and cognitive and behavioral issues. The dose and timing of alcohol exposure, maternal and environmental factors, and genetics all impact FASD outcomes, but differential susceptibility and resiliency to PAE remains poorly understood. In this study, we examined the differential effects of PAE during early mouse development on brain growth and gene expression. Brains were weighed and collected either 24 hours or five days after treatment. We then performed transcriptomics to determine whether offspring differentially affected by PAE, by brain weight, also differ in gene expression, despite having the same genetic background, alcohol exposure, and maternal factors.

Children born with this syndrome experience the symptoms throughout their entire lives. Some symptoms can be managed with treatment by a healthcare provider, but they won’t go away. One person might have only a few, while another person could experience all of them. An individual with FAS may have noticeable changes to their face and limbs, as well as delays in the way their body develops over time. There can also be mental and emotional challenges throughout the person’s life that can impact their social life, education and work. There is no known safe amount of alcohol during pregnancy or when trying to get pregnant.

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