Citation: Streissguth, A.P., Barr, H.M., Bookstein, F.L., Sampson, P.D., & Olson, H.C. (1999). The long-term neurocognitive consequences of prenatal alcohol exposure: A 14-year study. Psychological Science, 10(3), 186-189.
Article Type: Clinical Study
Conclusion: Neurobehavioral deficits continue to manifest themselves through the life span of children prenatally exposed to alcohol. The lack of a dose-response relationship indicated that there is no safe level of alcohol exposure.
Purpose: Little is known about the long-term outcomes of children prenatally exposed to alcohol. The purpose of this study was to conduct a longitudinal analysis of the performance of 500 children born to mothers who had enrolled in prenatal care at two Seattlehospitals, and who demonstrated heavy drinking and smoking. Performance data were taken at birth, at 8 and 18 months, and at 4, 7, and 14 years.
Findings: Although present at birth, growth deficiencies were not observable by 8 months, and the facial features were no longer detectable at 14 years of age. Neurobehavioral deficits, however, did not improve, and at age 14, these children were demonstrating poorer performance in attention, memory, phonological processing, and arithmetic, as well as in teacher reports of attention, reasoning, distractibility, and restlessness. There was no dose-response relationship.
Implications: Children identified at birth as being prenatally exposed to alcohol demonstrate neuropsychological deficits through (at a minimum) 14 years of age. The challenges are many, and include the need to: study the characteristics and outcomes of these persons as they continue to adulthood; glean from studies strategies that can be effective in intervention; and utilize new scanning technologies and evolving knowledge of the brain to understand specific deviations in brain structure and function.
Email Address: astreiss@u.washington.edu