Relationship between dysmorphic features and general cognitive function in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

Prenatal alcohol exposure may adversely affect fetal development, causing growth restriction, distinctive craniofacial anomalies, and central nervous system dysfunction. The continuum of associated adverse fetal outcomes is most accurately termed fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). The purpose of this study was to further clarify the relationship between dysmorphic features and general cognitive capacity in a study on Finnish children with FASD.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in Finland: clinical delineation of 77 older children and adolescents.

The adverse effects of alcohol on the developing human comprise a spectrum of structural anomalies and behavioral and neurocognitive disabilities, most accurately termed fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). We previously have proposed revisions to the 1996 Institute of Medicine Diagnostic Criteria for diagnoses in the FASD continuum [fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), partial fetal alcohol syndrome (PFAS), alcohol related birth defects (ARBD), and alcohol related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND)], allowing for more reproducible and accurate FASD diagnosis in a clinical setting [Hoyme et al., 2005].