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Pregnant Mom's Drinking May Cause Psychiatric Disorders In Offspring

Prenatal exposure to alcohol causes birth defects, as well as abnormal development in attention and memory, executive functioning, motor skills, learning, and judgment. This study examined how psychiatric problems might also be linked to prenatal alcohol exposure. Beginning with a longitudinal study of 1,529 pregnant women, researchers chose a group of 500 newborns who were most heavily exposed to alcohol, plus a sampling of newborns with exposures varying from total abstinence to heavy drinking. Years later, at an average age of 25.7 years, 400 members of the newborn group were administered clinical assessments for psychiatric disorders.

Results indicate that prenatal exposure to alcohol may be a risk factor for specific psychiatric disorders and traits in early adulthood. Specifically, the odds of appearance of one or more of six psychiatric disorders and traits were more or more binge-drinking episodes during pregnancy.

(Barr, HM, Bookstein, FL, O’Malley, KD, Connor, PD, Huggins, JE, Streissguth, AP: Binge drinking during pregnancy as a predictor of psychiatric disorders on the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV in young adult offspring. American Journal of Psychiatry 163:1061-1065, 2006.)

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