Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Tyler Fitzel
Leah Willcutt
Signs and Symptoms
Physical Effects
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Characteristic facial features
Small eyes (two standard
deviations)
Mental effects
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Learning disabilities
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Behavior problems
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Hyperactivity
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poor self control
Narrow upper lip
No ridges above lip and below
nose
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Physical deformities
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vision difficulties
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heart defects
Causes
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Caused by maternal consumption of alcohol during
pregnancy
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Exposure window and dosage very important!
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Alcohol crosses the placenta
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Fetal BAC is higher than the mother due to slower
metabolic rate
All parts of the developing brain can be affected
Mechanisms
1. Apoptosis: Alcohol triggers and facilitates cell death during development
2. Epigenetics: Alcohol exposure turns genes on or off
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Evidence shows the gene responsible for myelinating cells in white
matter turned off by alcohol
Changes can be passed down to offspring
3. Iron metabolism: Alcohol affects how iron is metabolized in the body
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Iron deficiency during development shown to interfere with learning
Treatments?
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Medications can treat the symptoms but not
reverse the effects
New experimental treatment is supplementing
infant diet with choline, which has been
shown to stimulate hippocampus
development
Impact on Student Learning
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Attention
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Executive functions
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Difficulty with encoding, but not retrieval or retention of words
Visual and spatial
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Difficulty with organization and planning
Verbal learning
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Difficulty in shifting attention from one topic to the next
Difficulty replacing objects to original position on a table.
Reaction time
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Slower eye movements in reacting to visual stimuli
Ethics
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Maternal vs. Fetal rights?
The 1999 landmark US case of the State vs Deborah Z, a 34-year-old
woman who had drunk heavily during pregnancy and immediately
prelabour and delivered a child with FAS, highlights some of the
legal and moral issues.
Question: Is it ethical to charge Deborah Z with a
crime for drinking during pregnancy?
Answer
Deborah Z was charged with attempted murder and
reckless endangerment. Prosecution argued that a
woman should be held accountable for injury caused to
her unborn child by her actions.
However, on the basis of a ruling that a fetus is not in
law a human being, the Wisconsin Appeals Court
concluded that such a mother could not be held
criminally liable.
Interesting Facts
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White, college-educated women most at risk for children with
FASD
Animals exposed to alcohol during gestation show a greater
preference for alcohol during adulthood than unexposed
animals
Metabolism of alcohol different for every woman—identical
twins have been reported where one affected, one not!
Wisconsin has the highest number of incidences of FASD,
Minnesota is #7
Sources
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Mukherjee, R., Eastman, N., Turk, J., Hollins. S. Lancet. “Fetal Alcohol
Syndrome: Law and Ethics”.
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Mayo Clinic (www.mayoclinic.com) Symptoms and signs
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Center for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov)
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(www.pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aaso.htm) Impact on learning
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NIH Alcohol Alert No. 50 http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa50.htm
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Olney, J. (2004), Fetal alcohol syndrome at the cellular level. Addiction
Biology, 9: 137–149.
Jeffrey R. Wozniak, Ph.D., L.P., Interview 6-29-2011