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Tyler Fitzel Leah Willcutt. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Signs and Symptoms. Physical Effects. Mental effects . Learning disabilities Behavior problems Hyperactivity poor self control. Characteristic facial features Small eyes (two standard deviations) Narrow upper lip
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Tyler Fitzel Leah Willcutt Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Signs and Symptoms Physical Effects Mental effects • Learning disabilities • Behavior problems • Hyperactivity • poor self control • Characteristic facial features • Small eyes (two standard deviations) • Narrow upper lip • No ridges above lip and below nose • Physical deformities • vision difficulties • heart defects
Causes • Caused by maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy • Exposure window and dosage very important! • Alcohol crosses the placenta • 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 • 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 • Iron deficiency during development shown to interfere with learning
Treatments? • 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 • Attention • Difficulty in shifting attention from one topic to the next • Executive functions • Difficulty with organization and planning • Verbal learning • Difficulty with encoding, but not retrieval or retention of words • Visual and spatial • Difficulty replacing objects to original position on a table. • Reaction time • Slower eye movements in reacting to visual stimuli
Ethics • 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 • 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 • Mukherjee, R., Eastman, N., Turk, J., Hollins. S. Lancet. “Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Law and Ethics”. • Mayo Clinic (www.mayoclinic.com) Symptoms and signs • Center for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov) • (www.pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aaso.htm) Impact on learning • NIH Alcohol Alert No. 50 http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa50.htm • 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
