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Forty children exposed to variable amounts of alcohol in utero and 40 control children were studied. All mothers had been enrolled in an antenatal programme aiming to identify and reduce alcohol use and abuse during pregnancy. Follow up was at the median age of 22 (18 to 27) months. A significant reduction in intrauterine growth was seen in children born to alcoholic mothers. Three of six children continuously exposed to high amounts of alcohol throughout fetal life showed growth retardation and physical abnormalities characteristic of fetal alcohol exposure, while infants whose mothers had stopped drinking did not suffer these effects. Psychological or behavioural disturbances were found in all but one of 13 children born to alcoholic mothers. The home environment during the first two years did not compensate for the effects of fetal alcohol exposure. Mothers classified as excessive drinkers but not abusers all reduced their alcohol consumption after the first trimester. Their children did not differ from controls with regard to physical development or behaviour but many were retarded in speech and, in addition had a more unstable family background.

The frequencies of 60 minor physical anomalies and various craniofacial measurements in 52 children with alcohol exposure of various durations in utero were determined and compared with 48 non-exposed healthy children at a mean age of 27 months. Compared with non-exposed children a significantly higher total minor physical anomaly count was observed in those children exposed prenatally to alcohol throughout pregnancy. Binge drinking was not associated with an increased minor physical anomaly count. During the first year of life facial features were judged according to subjective impression: 10 children had typical facial features of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and 19 children were judged to have possible fetal alcohol effects on their face. Only six of them fulfilled the strict craniofacial criteria for diagnosis of FAS at the age of 27 months. Our results stress the importance of recognising also the subtle dysmorphic facial features associated with prenatal alcohol exposure: 22 of 29 (76%) of exposed children judged to have typical or possible features of FAS during the first year showed signs of central nervous system dysfunction at the age of 27 months.

Aims

To study the effect of in-utero alcohol exposure on the insulin-like growth factor axis (IGF) and leptin during infancy and childhood, considering that exposed children may exhibit pre- and postnatal growth retardation.

Methods

We prospectively identified heavily drinking pregnant women who consumed on average 4 or more drinks of ethanol per day (≥48 g/day) and assessed growth in 69 of their offspring and an unexposed control group of 83 children, measuring serum IGF-I (radioimmunoassay), IGF-II (immunoradiometric assay, IRMA), insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3) (IRMA) and leptin (IRMA) at 1 month and 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years of age.

Results

IGF-II levels increased with age in both groups, but the rate of increase was significantly higher in exposed children, and levels were significantly higher in ethanol-exposed children at 3, 4, and 5 years of age. In exposed children, IGF-I levels were higher at 3 and 4 years and leptin levels were significantly lower at 1 and 2 years. Exposed subjects showed a much lower correlation between IGF-I and growth parameters than unexposed subjects.

Conclusion

Exposure to ethanol during pregnancy increases IGF-I and IGF-II and decreases leptin during early childhood. The increase in serum IGF-II concentrations in ethanol-exposed children suggests that this hormone should be explored as a potential marker for prenatal alcohol exposure.

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can lead to a variety of cognitive and other birth defects, collectively termed fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), which includes the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). This study examined the impact of gestational alcohol exposure on the morphology of the cingulate gyrus, given this region’s role in cognitive control, attention, and emotional regulation, all of which are affected in children with FASD. Thirty-one youth (ages 8–16) with histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure (n = 21) and demographically-matched comparison subjects (n = 10) underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging. The cingulate gyrus was manually delineated, and parcellated volumes of grey and white matter were compared across groups. Alcohol-exposed individuals had significantly smaller raw cingulate grey matter, white matter, and tissue volumes, compared to controls. After adjusting for respective cranial tissue constituents, only white matter volumes remained significantly reduced, and this held regardless of whether or not the child qualified for a diagnosis of FAS. A correlation between posterior cingulate grey matter volume and the WISC-III Freedom from Distractibility Index was also observed in alcohol-exposed children. These data suggest that cingulate white matter is compromised beyond global white matter hypoplasia in alcohol-exposed individuals, regardless of FAS diagnosis. The observed volumetric reductions in the cingulate gyrus may contribute to the disruptive and emotionally dysregulated behavioral profile commonly observed in this population.

We report a mother and two of her children, one female and the other male, who have ptosis, hypertelorism, epicanthic folds, downward slanting palpebral fissures, broad nasal bridge, and minor digital anomalies (fig 1); the children had delayed closure of a large anterior fontanelle. All three affected persons were born prematurely.

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Background

A primary goal of recent research is the development of neurobehavioral profiles that specifically define fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), which may assist differential diagnosis or improve treatment. In the current study we define a preliminary profile using neuropsychological data from a multisite study.

Methods

Data were collected using a broad neurobehavioral protocol from two sites of a multisite study of FASD. Subjects were children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure and unexposed controls. The alcohol-exposed group included children with and with out fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). From 547 neuropsychological, 22 variables were selected for analysis based on their ability to distinguish children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure from nonexposed controls. These data were analyzed using latent profile analysis (LPA).

Results

The results indicated that a 2-class model best fit the data. The resulting profile was successful at distinguishing subjects with FAS from nonexposed controls without FAS with 92% overall accuracy; 87.8% of FAS cases and 95.7% of controls were correctly classified. The same analysis was repeated with children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure but without FAS and non-exposed controls with similar results. The overall accuracy was 84.7%; 68.4% of alcohol-exposed cases and 95% of controls were correctly classified. In both analyses, the profile based on neuropsychological variables was more successful at distinguishing the groups than was IQ alone.

Conclusions

We used data from two sites of a multisite study and a broad neuropsychological test battery to determine a profile that could be used to accurately identify children affected by prenatal alcohol exposure. Results indicated that measures of executive function and spatial processing are especially sensitive to prenatal alcohol exposure.

Prenatal exposure to teratogenic substances, such as nicotine or alcohol, increases the risk of developing attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To date, studies examining this relationship have used symptom scales as outcome measures to assess the effect of prenatal exposure, and have not investigated the neurobiological pathways involved. This study explores the effect of prenatal exposure to cigarettes or alcohol on brain volume in children with ADHD and typically developing controls. Children with ADHD who had been exposed prenatally to either substance were individually matched to children with and without ADHD who had not been. Controls who had been exposed prenatally were also individually matched to controls who had not been. For prenatal exposure to both smoking and alcohol, we found a pattern where subjects with ADHD who had been exposed had the smallest brain volumes and unexposed controls had the largest, with intermediate volumes for unexposed subjects with ADHD. This effect was most pronounced for cerebellum. A similar reduction fell short of significance for controls who had been exposed to cigarettes, but not alcohol. Our results are consistent with an additive effect of prenatal exposure and ADHD on brain volume, with the effects most pronounced for cerebellum.

Background

Adaptive behavior, the ability to respond successfully to everyday demands, may be especially sensitive to the effects of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure. Similar adaptive dysfunction is common in other developmental disorders including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD is frequently present in alcohol-exposed children and this overlap in clinical presentation makes identification of alcohol-exposed children difficult. Direct comparison of children with prenatal alcohol exposure and ADHD may yield distinct patterns of cognitive and behavioral performance and add to growing knowledge of the neuropsychological and behavioral profile of prenatal alcohol exposure. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to compare adaptive behavior in children with histories of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure (ALC), nonexposed children with ADHD (ADHD), and typically developing controls (CON).

Methods

Sixty-five children (ALC = 22, ADHD = 23, CON = 20) were selected from a larger ongoing study of the behavioral teratogenicity of alcohol. Alcohol-exposed and control participants were selected to match the ADHD subjects on age, sex, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity. Caregivers were administered the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, a semi-structured interview, and were asked to rate their child’s behavior on 3 domains of adaptive function. Data were analyzed using regression techniques.

Results

Relative to controls, children in both the ALC and ADHD groups showed adaptive behavior deficits on all 3 domains and children in the ALC group were significantly more impaired than the ADHD group on the daily living skills domain. Within the ALC group, socialization standard scores were lower at older ages. This negative relationship between age and standard scores in the ALC group was also observed on the communication domain, a finding not previously reported.

Conclusions

This study suggests that both children with prenatal alcohol exposure and children with ADHD show impairments in adaptive function relative to controls, but that the pattern of impairment differs between these clinical groups. Adaptive ability in children with prenatal alcohol exposure is characterized by an arrest in development, as evidenced by a lack of improvement with age in socialization and communication scores. In contrast, children with ADHD exhibit a developmental delay in adaptive ability as their scores continued to improve with age, albeit not to the level of control children. Continued research focused on elucidating the patterns of deficits that exist in alcohol-exposed children ultimately will lead to improved differential diagnosis and effective interventions.

Objective: To examine the effect of alcohol consumption on the probability of conception.

Design: A follow up study over six menstrual cycles or until a clinically recognised pregnancy occurred after discontinuation of contraception.

Subjects: 430 Danish couples aged 20-35 years trying to conceive for the first time.

Main outcome measures: Clinically recognised pregnancy. Fecundability odds ratio: odds of conception among exposed couples divided by odds among those not exposed.

Results: In the six cycles of follow up 64% (179) of women with a weekly alcohol intake of less than five drinks and 55% (75) of women with a higher intake conceived. After adjustment for cycle number, smoking in either partner or smoking exposure in utero, centre of enrolment, diseases in female reproductive organs, woman’s body mass index, sperm concentration, and duration of menstrual cycle, the odds ratio decreased with increasing alcohol intake from 0.61 (95% confidence interval 0.40 to 0.93) among women consuming 1-5 drinks a week to 0.34 (0.22 to 0.52) among women consuming more than 10 drinks a week (P=0.03 for trend) compared with women with no alcohol intake. Among men no dose-response association was found after control for confounders including women’s alcohol intake.

Conclusion: A woman’s alcohol intake is associated with decreased fecundability even among women with a weekly alcohol intake corresponding to five or fewer drinks. This finding needs further corroboration, but it seems reasonable to encourage women to avoid intake of alcohol when they are trying to become pregnant.

Key messages As alcohol consumption is widespread and increasing in many countries, even a minor effect on fertility is of public health interest Some studies have found that women with high alcohol intake take longer to become pregnant, but none have found that moderate intake has an effect The probability of conception in a menstrual cycle decreased with increasing alcohol intake in women, even among those drinking five or fewer drinks a week Women who are trying to conceive should be encouraged to avoid intake of alcohol

Although black women suffer disproportionately from alcohol-related illnesses and causes of death, little is known about the extent to which poorer outcomes are a function of differences in drinking, the use of health services, or some combination of these factors. This study, using interview data obtained in the Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area household survey, compares racial differences in alcohol use and abuse among a sample of 2,100 women. After controlling for differences in sociodemographic characteristics, black women were found to be at no greater risk than whites for heavy drinking or for suffering from alcohol abuse or dependence. Racial differences, however, were observed in heavy drinking by years of education. A similar percentage of black women and white women who had not completed high school were heavy drinkers, but black women with 12 or more years of education were less likely to be heavy drinkers than whites with comparable education. These findings raise questions about the extent to which differences in drinking contribute to the poorer alcohol-related health outcomes of black women in Baltimore. Additionally, the finding that education was inversely related to heavy drinking among black women may be helpful in shaping early alcohol abuse intervention and treatment services that target black women.

Aims

College students who violate alcohol policies are often mandated to participate in alcohol-related interventions. This study investigated (a) whether such interventions reduced drinking beyond the sanction alone, (b) whether a brief motivational intervention (BMI) was more efficacious than two computer-delivered interventions (CDIs), and (c) whether intervention response differed by gender.

Design

Randomized controlled trial with four conditions (BMI, Alcohol 101 Plus™, Alcohol Edu for Sanctions, delayed control) and four assessments (baseline, 1, 6, and 12 months).

Setting

Private residential university in the USA.

Participants

Students (n = 677; 64% male) who had violated campus alcohol policies and were sanctioned to participate in a risk reduction program.

Measurements

Consumption (drinks per heaviest and typical week, heavy drinking frequency, peak and typical blood alcohol concentration), alcohol problems, and recidivism.

Findings

Piecewise latent growth models characterized short-term (1-month) and longer-term (1–12 months) change. Female but not male students reduced drinking and problems in the control condition. Males reduced drinking and problems after all interventions relative to control, but did not maintain these gains. Females reduced drinking to a greater extent after a BMI than after either CDI, and maintained reductions relative to baseline across the follow-up year. No differences in recidivism were found.

Conclusions

Male and female students responded differently to sanctions for alcohol violations and to risk reduction interventions. BMIs optimized outcomes for both genders. Male students improved after all interventions, but female students improved less after CDIs than after BMI. Intervention effects decayed over time, especially for males.

Despite the harmful effects of fetal alcohol exposure, some pregnant women continue to drink alcohol. Thus, it is imperative to pursue safe, effective treatments for children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Using an animal model, our laboratory has demonstrated that choline, an essential nutrient, effectively reduces the severity of some fetal alcohol effects, even when administered after the ethanol insult is complete. The present study investigated whether there is a critical developmental period when choline is most effective in attenuating ethanol’s teratogenic effects. Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to 5.25 g/kg/day ethanol during the third trimester equivalent brain growth spurt (postnatal days (PD) 4–9) via intubation. A non-intubation control group and a sham intubation control group were included. Following ethanol exposure, pups received subcutaneous injections of saline vehicle or choline chloride (100 mg/kg/day) from PD 11–20, PD 21–30, or PD 11–30. Beginning on PD 45, subjects were tested on a Morris water maze spatial learning task. Performance of both the ethanol-exposed group that did not receive choline and the ethanol-exposed group treated with choline from PD 21–30 was significantly impaired compared to controls during acquisition of the Morris water maze task. Performance of ethanol-exposed groups treated with choline from PD 11–20 or PD 11–30 was intermediate, not differing significantly from any other groups. However, during the probe trial, ethanol exposure produced significant deficits in spatial memory which were mitigated by all choline treatments, regardless of the timing of administration. These findings suggest that choline’s therapeutic window may be very large, or spans across the two developmental periods examined in this study. Importantly, these findings indicate that choline supplementation may effectively reduce some alcohol-related learning impairments, even when administered in later childhood.

Antisocial traits are common among alcoholics— particularly in certain subtypes. Although people with antisocial tendencies show atypical brain activation in some emotion and reward paradigms, how the brain reward systems of heavy drinkers (HD) are influenced by antisocial traits remains unclear. We used subjects’ preferred alcohol drink odors (AO), appetitive (ApCO) and non-appetitive (NApO) control odors in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine if reward system responses varied as a function of antisocial trait density (ASD). In this retrospective analysis, we examined 30 HD who had participated in imaging twice: once while exposed to clamped intravenous alcohol infusion targeted to 50 mg%, and once during placebo saline infusion. Under placebo, there were positive correlations between ASD and blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) activation in the [AO > ApCO] contrast in the left dorsal putamen, while negative correlations were present in medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the bilateral amygdala. A similar pattern was observed in the correlation with the [AO > NApO] contrast. This inverse relationship between ASD and activation to alcohol odors in OFC and amygdala was specific to AO. However, negative correlations between ASD and the [ApCO > NApO] contrast were also present in the insula, putamen, and medial frontal cortex. These data suggest that frontal and limbic reward circuits of those with significant ASD are less responsive to reward cues in general, and particularly to alcohol cues in medial OFC and amygdala. These findings are broadly consistent with the reward deficiency syndrome hypothesis, although positive correlation in the striatum suggests regional variability.

OBJECTIVE:

To investigate drinking patterns and gender differences in alcohol-related problems in a Brazilian population, with an emphasis on the frequency of heavy drinking.

METHODS:

A cross-sectional study was conducted with a probability adult household sample (n = 1,464) in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Alcohol intake and ICD-10 psychopathology diagnoses were assessed with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview 1.1. The analyses focused on the prevalence and determinants of 12-month non-heavy drinking, heavy episodic drinking (4-5 drinks per occasion), and heavy and frequent drinking (heavy drinking at least 3 times/week), as well as associated alcohol-related problems according to drinking patterns and gender.

RESULTS:

Nearly 22% (32.4% women, 8.7% men) of the subjects were lifetime abstainers, 60.3% were non-heavy drinkers, and 17.5% reported heavy drinking in a 12-month period (26.3% men, 10.9% women). Subjects with the highest frequency of heavy drinking reported the most problems. Among subjects who did not engage in heavy drinking, men reported more problems than did women. A gender convergence in the amount of problems was observed when considering heavy drinking patterns. Heavy and frequent drinkers were twice as likely as abstainers to present lifetime depressive disorders. Lifetime nicotine dependence was associated with all drinking patterns. Heavy and frequent drinking was not restricted to young ages.

CONCLUSIONS:

Heavy and frequent episodic drinking was strongly associated with problems in a community sample from the largest city in Latin America. Prevention policies should target this drinking pattern, independent of age or gender. These findings warrant continued research on risky drinking behavior, particularly among persistent heavy drinkers at the non-dependent level.

The aims of this study were to evaluate the language abilities of young children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure and to determine if these abilities represent a relative strength or weakness for this population. Two matched groups of children (ages 3 to 5) completed the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Preschool version: 25 children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure (ALC) and 26 non-exposed controls (CON). Consistent with previous research, the CON group had significantly higher full scale IQ (FSIQ) scores than the ALC group. Receptive and expressive language skills of the two groups were compared. The ALC group had significantly poorer language skills than the CON group and both groups had better receptive than expressive abilities. Language performance did not significantly deviate from what would be predicted by FSIQ for either group. These results indicate that receptive and expressive language abilities are impaired in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure but not more so than general intellectual functioning. However, these deficits are likely to impact the social interactions and behavioral adjustment of children with prenatal alcohol exposure.

Background

Internet-based interventions for heavy drinkers show promising results, but existing research is characterized by few studies in nonstudent adult populations and few comparisons with appropriate control groups.

Objective

To test whether a fully automated Internet-based brief personalized feedback intervention and a fully automated Internet-based personalized brief advice intervention in a non-treatment-seeking population of heavy drinkers would result in a reduced alcohol intake.

Methods

We conducted a 3-arm parallel randomized controlled trial in a general population-based sample of heavy drinkers. The 54,157 participants (median age of 58 years) were screened for heavy drinking. Of the 3418 participants who had a weekly alcohol consumption above 14 drinks for women and 21 drinks for men, 1380 (619 women) consented to take part in the trial and were randomly assigned to an Internet-based brief personalized feedback intervention group (normative feedback, n = 476), an Internet-based personalized brief advice intervention group (n = 450), or a nonintervention control group (n = 454). Follow-up after 6 and 12 months included 871 and 1064 participants, respectively, of all groups combined. The outcome measure was self-reported weekly alcohol consumption. We analyzed the data according to the intention-to-treat principle. To examine changes over time and to account for the multiple time measurements, we used a multilevel linear mixed model. To take attrition into account, we used multiple imputation to address missing data.

Results

The intervention effect of the Internet-based brief personalized feedback intervention, determined as the mean additional difference in changes in alcohol consumption in the Internet-based brief personalized feedback intervention compared with the control group, was –1.8 drinks/week after 6 months and –1.4 drinks/week after 12 months; these effects were nonsignificant (95% confidence interval –4.0 to 0.3 at 6 months, –3.4 to 0.6 at 12 months). The intervention effect of the Internet-based personalized brief advice intervention was –0.5 drinks/week after 6 months and –1.2 drinks/week after 12 months; these effects were nonsignificant (95% confidence interval –2.7 to 1.6 at 6 months, –3.3 to 0.9 at 12 months).

Conclusions

In this randomized controlled trial we found no evidence that an Internet-based brief personalized feedback intervention was effective in reducing drinking in an adult population of heavy drinkers.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00751985; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00751985 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/68WCRLyaP)

Alcohol advertisements may influence impulsive, risky behaviors indirectly, via automatically-activated attitudes toward alcohol. Results from an experiment in which participants were exposed to either four alcohol advertisements, four control advertisements, or four drunk driving public service advertisements, suggested that alcohol advertisements had more measurable effects on implicit, than on explicit attitude measures. Moreover, there were significant indirect paths from alcohol advertisement exposure through automatically-activated alcohol attitudes on willingness to engage in risky alcohol-related behaviors, notably drinking and driving. A mechanism that may explain how these advertisements activate automatic, non-deliberative alcohol attitudes was investigated. Associative evidence was found supportive of an evaluative conditioning mechanism, in which positive responses to an alcohol advertisement may lead to more positive automatically-activated attitudes toward alcohol itself.

Background

Prenatal alcohol exposure is a leading preventable cause of birth defects and developmental disabilities in the United States.

Design

A randomized controlled trial (2002–2005; data analyzed 2005–2006) of a brief motivational intervention to reduce the risk of an alcohol-exposed pregnancy (AEP) in preconceptional women by focusing on both risk drinking and ineffective contraception use.

Setting/Participants

A total of 830 nonpregnant women, aged 18–44 years, and currently at risk for an AEP were recruited in six diverse settings in Florida, Texas, and Virginia. Combined settings had higher proportions of women at risk for AEP (12.5% overall) than in the general population (2%).

Interventions

Participants were randomized to receive information plus a brief motivational intervention (n=416) or to receive information only (n=414). The brief motivational intervention consisted of four counseling sessions and one contraception consultation and services visit.

Main Outcome Measures

Women consuming more than five drinks on any day or more than eight drinks per week on average, were considered risk drinkers; women who had intercourse without effective contraception were considered at risk of pregnancy. Reversing either or both risk conditions resulted in reduced risk of an AEP.

Results

Across the follow-up period, the odds ratios (ORs) of being at reduced risk for AEP were twofold greater in the intervention group: 3 months, 2.31 (95% confidence interval [CI]=1.69–3.20); 6 months, 2.15 (CI=1.52–3.06); 9 months, 2.11 (CI=1.47–3.03). Between-groups differences by time phase were 18.0%, 17.0%, and 14. 8%, respectively.

Conclusions

A brief motivational intervention can reduce the risk of an AEP.

Infant symbolic play was examined in relation to prenatal alcohol exposure and socioenvironmental background and to predict which infants met criteria for fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) at 5 years. 107 Cape Coloured, South African infants born to heavy drinking mothers and abstainers/light drinkers were recruited prenatally. Complexity of play, socio-demographic and psychological correlates of maternal alcohol use, and quality of parenting were assessed at 13 months, and IQ and FAS diagnosis at 5 years. The effect of drinking on spontaneous play was not significant after control for social environment. By contrast, prenatal alcohol and quality of parenting related independently to elicited play. Elicited play predicted 5-year Digit Span and was poorer in infants subsequently diagnosed with FAS/partial FAS and in nonsyndromal heavily exposed infants, compared with abstainers/light drinkers. Thus, symbolic play may provide an early indicator of risk for alcohol-related deficits. The independent effects of prenatal alcohol and quality of parenting suggest that infants whose symbolic play is adversely affected by alcohol exposure may benefit from stimulation from a responsive caregiver.

Many adolescents have chronic exposure to hazardous levels of alcohol. This is likely to be a significant predictor of health outcomes, including those related to immunity. We assessed substance use and biochemical immunological parameters in heavy drinking adolescents (meeting DSM-IV criteria for alcohol dependence) and light/non-drinking control adolescents in Cape Town. Lifetime alcohol dose, measured in standard units of alcohol, was orders of magnitude higher in alcohol dependent (AD) participants than controls. All adolescent AD had a ‘weekends-only’ style of alcohol consumption. The AD group was chosen to represent relatively ‘pure’ AD, with minimal other drug use and no psychiatric diagnoses. With these narrow parameters in place, we found that AD adolescents were lymphopenic compared to controls, with significantly lower mean numbers of absolute circulating CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocytes. Upon conclusion, we found that adolescent AD individuals with excessive alcohol intake, in a weekend binge-drinking style but without comorbid drug or psychiatric disorders, may be at increased risk of lymphopenia. This alcohol misuse may increase infectious disease susceptibility (including TB and HIV) by reducing immune system capabilities. Complex interactions of alcohol with other documented high-risk activities may further compound health risks.

Objective

To evaluate the association between prenatal alcohol exposure and the rate of Conduct Disorder in exposed compared to unexposed adolescents.

Method

Data for these analyses are from a longitudinal study of prenatal substance exposures. Women were interviewed at their 4th and 7th prenatal months, and with their children, at birth, 8 and 18 months, 3, 6, 10, 14, and 16 years postpartum. Offspring were interviewed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule-IV; maternal and adolescent diagnoses were made using DSM-IV criteria at age 16. The sample was 592 adolescents and their mothers/caretakers.

Results

Prenatal alcohol exposure is significantly associated with an increased rate of Conduct Disorder in the adolescents. This effect was detected above an average exposure of 1 or more drinks/day in the first trimester. The effect remained significant after controlling for other significant variables including measures of the environment, maternal psychopathology, and other prenatal exposures.

Conclusion

Prenatal alcohol use in the first trimester is a risk factor for Conduct Disorder in the exposed offspring.

BACKGROUND

From the standpoint of normal embryologic development, the palpebral fissures are generally considered to be determined by and dependent on the underlying optic vesicles, outpouchings of the frontal area of the developing fetal brain. It has been suggested that short palpebral fissures are a reflection of an underlying defect in specific areas of forebrain development. Alternatively, short palpebral fissures, seen in a number of multiple malformation syndromes associated with small occipitofrontal circumference (OFC), such as the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), might be proportionally small as a reflection of the microcephaly. The purpose of this study was to examine whether short palpebral fissures are independent of or determined by the OFC.

METHODS

Age-specific palpebral fissure length (PFL) and OFC centiles were correlated in 273 children with FAS, 272 children with some features of FAS and 385 children with no structural features characteristic of FAS.

RESULTS

OFC and PFL centiles demonstrated a statistically significant but weak correlation in all three study groups. Among children with FAS, only 10.2 % of the total variation in PFL could be accounted for by OFC (p=0.0001). A similar pattern was observed for children with some features of FAS (r2 = 0.142; p=0.0001) and children with no structural features of FAS (r2 = 0.110; p=0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

Palpebral fissure length is predominately independent of occipitofrontal circumference in children with and without features of FAS. Short palpebral fissures may well reflect a defect in forebrain development rather than being proportionally reduced in size as a reflection of microcephaly.

Background:

Brief alcohol intervention may improve outcomes for injury patients with hazardous drinking but is less effective with increased severity of alcohol involvement. This study evaluated a brief method for detecting problem drinking in minor trauma patients and differentiating hazardous drinkers from those with more severe alcohol problems.

Methods:

Subjects included 60 minor trauma patients in an academic urban emergency department (ED) who had consumed any amount of alcohol in the prior month. Screening and risk stratification involved the use of a heavy-drinking-day screening item and the Rapid Alcohol Problems Screen (RAPS). We compared the heavy-drinking-day item to past-month alcohol use, as obtained by validated self-reporting methods, and measured the percentage of carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (%CDT) to assess the accuracy of self-reporting. The Alcohol Dependence Scale (ADS) was administered to gauge the severity of alcohol involvement and compared to the RAPS.

Results:

Eighty percent of the subjects endorsed at least one heavy drinking day in the past year, and all patients who exceeded recommended weekly drinking limits endorsed at least one heavy drinking day. Among those with at least one heavy drinking day, 58% had a positive RAPS result. Persons with no heavy drinking days (n=12) had a median ADS of 0.5 (range 0 to 3). RAPS-negative persons with heavy drinking days (n=20) had a median ADS of 2 (range 0 to 8). RAPS-positive persons with heavy drinking days (n=28) had a median ADS of 8 (range 1 to 43).

Conclusion:

A heavy-drinking-day item is useful for detecting hazardous drinking patterns, and the RAPS is useful for differentiating more problematic drinkers who may benefit from referral from those more likely to respond to a brief intervention. This represents a time-sensitive approach for risk-stratifying non-abstinent injury patients prior to ED discharge.

Seventy one patients with alcoholic liver disease and an equal number with non-alcoholic liver disease were interviewed using the schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia. Forty seven (66%) of the group with alcoholic liver disease had or had had psychiatric illnesses compared with 23 (32%) of the control group (p less than 0.001). Affective disorder, particularly major depression, neurotic disorders, and antisocial personality, were all more common among the patients with alcoholic liver disease than the controls. No patient had schizophrenia or other forms of psychosis. Among the patients with alcoholic liver disease 11 men (24%) and 14 women (54%) had an affective or a neurotic disorder that had antedated their heavy drinking, and 30 (77%) of those who had had such a problem at any time had symptoms at the time of interview. Abstinence from alcohol is essential for patients with severe alcoholic liver disease. In view of the high prevalence of psychiatric disorders in these patients psychiatric assessment is important to increase the patients' likelihood of complying with such advice.

AIM

This study evaluated two strategies to facilitate involvement in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) – a 12-step-based directive approach and a motivational enhancement approach – during skills-focused individual treatment.

DESIGN

Randomized controlled trial with assessments at baseline, end of treatment, and 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after treatment.

PARTICIPANTS, SETTING, and INTERVENTION

169 alcoholic outpatients (57 women) randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a directive approach to facilitating AA, a motivational enhancement approach to facilitating AA, or treatment as usual with no special emphasis on AA.

MEASUREMENTS

Self-report of AA meeting attendance and involvement, alcohol consumption (percent days abstinent, percent days heavy drinking), and negative alcohol consequences.

FINDINGS

Participants exposed to the 12-step directive condition for facilitating AA involvement reported more AA meeting attendance, more evidence of active involvement in AA, and a higher percent days abstinent relative to participants in the treatment-as-usual comparison group. Evidence suggested also that the effect of the directive strategy on abstinent days was partially mediated through AA involvement. The motivational enhancement approach to facilitating AA had no effect on outcome measures.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that treatment providers can use a 12-step-based directive approach to effectively facilitate involvement in AA and thereby improve client outcome.