Fetal Exposure to Alcohol Associated With Behavioral, Psychological Problems in Offspring

Children who were exposed to any amount of alcohol in the womb are more likely to be impulsive and diagnosed with separation anxiety and oppositional defiant disorder compared with children who were not exposed to alcohol in the womb, reports astudy inAJP in Advance.“To our knowledge, this is the largest examination of prenatal alcohol exposure and psychological, behavioral, and neurodevelopmental outcomes in preadolescence,” wrote Briana Lees, B.Psych., of the University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues. The authors noted their study reaffirmed the man y risks of heavy drinking during pregnancy, but “children with even the lowest levels of exposure demonstrate poorer psychological and behavioral outcomes as they enter adolescence.”Lees and colleagues analyzed data from 9,719 children aged 9 to 11 who are part of the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, which aims to track brain development in a nationally diverse population of children from preadolescence to young adulthood. For ABCD, all children and their parents complete psychological and cognitive assessments periodically, and the children receive periodic brain scans.Among the 9,719 children included in the analysis, 26% were exposed to alcohol during pregnancy. Compared with children with no alcohol exposure, those with any exposure had statistically greater average scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), which measures emotional and behavioral problems, and greater impulsivity sc...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: ABCD study ajp in advance alcohol impulsivity oppositional defiant disorder pregnancy prenatal exposure separation anxiety Source Type: research