INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING, SCIENCE AND - Volume 6, Issue 7, November 2017

Pages: 210-227

Date of Publication: 25-Nov-2017

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EFFECTS OF PRENATAL ALCOHOL AND SMOKING EXPOSURE ON CHILDREN IQ DEVELOPMENT

Author: Santoshi Kumari, V.K. Shivgotra and Pawan Kumar

Category: Engineering, Science and Mathematics

Abstract:

Maternal smoking during pregnancy has been associated with a wide range of adverse outcomes in offspring (Royal college of Physicians, 1992 and Olds, 1997). Women who smoke are also likely to drink alcohol. The most serious affect of maternal smoking and drinking during pregnancy is fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). FAS was first described in the United States (Jones et al., 1973), who identified a distinctive set of facial anomalies-short eyelid openings, flat mid-face, thin upper lip, and a flat or smooth groove between nose and upper lip (philtrum)-in children whose mothers drank very heavily during pregnancy. These children also exhibit growth retardation as well as significant cognitive and behavioural problems. The term “fetal alcohol effects” (FAE) is applied to children whose mothers are known to have drunk heavily during pregnancy and who exhibit some, but not all, of the characteristics of FAS (Streissguth et al., 1991 & Coles et al., 1997). The IQ scores of FAE patients are also depressed but tend to be somewhat higher than those found in FAS children. Research examining effects of alcohol on the developing brain has documented a broad range of cognitive and behavioural deficits in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), including IQ and attention deficits; poor learning, memory and impaired executive function (Mattson et al., 2011). Social and behavioural problems have also been reported in children with FASD. In one study adaptive behaviour scores in children with fetal alcohol syndrome exceeded what could be explained by low IQ scores (Thomas et al., 1998).

Keywords: Fetal Alcohol Syndorom disorder, Prenatal exposure, children IQ