Study: Low/Moderate Drinking in Early Pregnancy

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Low/Moderate Drinking in Early Pregnancy Has No Adverse Effects On Children Aged Five, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (June 19, 2012) — Low and moderate weekly alcohol consumption in early pregnancy is not associated with adverse neuropsychological effects in children aged five, suggests a series of papers published June 20 in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. However, high levels of alcohol per week were linked with a lower attention span among five year olds.

The Danish researchers have produced five papers looking at the effects of low, moderate, high and binge drinking on five year olds. Women were recruited from the Danish National Birth Cohort at their first antenatal visit.

Low average weekly alcohol consumption was defined as 1-4 drinks per week, moderate as 5-8 drinks per week and high levels as 9 or more drinks per week. Binge drinking was defined as intake of 5 or more drinks on a single occasion. Participants who did not drink during pregnancy were included as the unexposed reference group.

The definition of a drink in these papers comes from the Danish National Board of Health, which states one standard drink is equal to 12 grams of pure alcohol. However, the amount of alcohol in a standard drink varies significantly from country to country. In the UK the volume of alcohol in a drink is measured in units and one unit of alcohol is defined as 7.9 grams.

1,628 women took part in the studies. The average maternal age was 30.9 years, 50.1% were first-time mothers, 12.1% were single and 31.4% reported smoking during pregnancy.

The papers looked at the effects of alcohol on IQ, attention span, executive functions such as planning, organisation, and self-control in five year old children.

Overall, the papers found that low to moderate weekly drinking in early pregnancy had no significant effect on neurodevelopment of children aged five years, nor did binge drinking. Focusing on children's IQ and executive functions, no differences in test performance were observed between children whose mothers reported 1-4 or 5-8 drinks/week per week in pregnancy compared to children of abstaining mothers. However one finding showed that high levels of alcohol, intake of 9 or more drinks per week, was associated with lower attention span amongst five year olds.

Attention was measured using the Test of Everyday Attention for Children at Five (TEACh-5) which measures a child's selective attention and sustained attention. There were no significant effects on test performance in children of mothers drinking up to eight drinks per week compared to children of abstaining mothers. However, there was a significant association between maternal consumption of 9 or more drinks per week and risk of low overall attention score.

Child outcome measures and maternal IQ were obtained during a 3-hour assessment at a university or health clinic site. Children's intelligence was assessed with the Wechsler Primary and Preschool Scales of Intelligence-Revised (WPPSI-R). It consists of five verbal subtests and five performance (non-verbal) subtests.

In conclusion the authors of the papers state that it remains the most conservative advice for women to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy, however, small amounts may not present serious concern.

Ulrik Schiøler Kesmodel, Consultant Gynaecologist and Associate Professor at Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital, and Erik Lykke Mortensen, Professor of Medical Psychology at the Institute of Public Health, Medical Psychology Unit, University of Copenhagen, Denmark and co-authors of the studies said:

"High prenatal exposure to alcohol has consistently been associated with adverse effects on neurodevelopment. Areas such as intelligence, attention and executive functions have been found to be particularly vulnerable. However, less is known about the effects of low to moderate, weekly average consumption levels and binge drinking.

"Our findings show that low to moderate drinking is not associated with adverse effects on the children aged five. However, despite these findings, additional large scale studies should be undertaken to further investigate the possible effects."

John Thorp, BJOG Deputy-Editor-in-Chief added: "These five papers are important as they look at a range of drinking patterns amongst women in early pregnancy. It is important to note the difference in alcohol levels from country to country and a standard drink varies greatly.

"More research is needed to look at long term effects of alcohol consumption on children. The best advice is to choose not to drink however small amounts have not been shown to be harmful."

The studies were supported primarily by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 225938.htm

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Pregnant Women Should Avoid Alcohol During Pregnancy, Experts Say
ScienceDaily (June 22, 2012) — Experts at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine disagree with a series of new studies from Denmark that suggest consumption of up to 8 alcoholic drinks a week or occasional binge drinking during pregnancy is generally safe for the developing baby.

Kenneth Lyons Jones, MD, professor in the UCSD Department of Pediatrics and a renowned expert in birth defects, and Christina Chambers, MPH, PhD, director of the California Teratogen Information Service (CTIS) Pregnancy Health Information Line, say these studies are misleading to pregnant women, citing more than 30 years of research to the contrary.

"This series of studies collected data on alcohol exposure during an interview conducted sometime between 7 and 39 weeks of pregnancy. The quantity and frequency of alcohol consumed was based on mother's recall which may not be accurate," said Jones who was one of the first doctors to identify Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) in 1973.

Published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the series of studies analyzed data from more than 1,600 women in the Danish National Birth Cohort. The amount of alcohol consumed by the women during their pregnancy was classified as either none, low, moderate, or high. In addition, binge drinking was defined as having 5 or more drinks on a single occasion. When the child reached the age of 5, the children underwent various development tests. Researchers found no significant association between prenatal alcohol consumption at low and moderate levels and general intelligence, attention, executive function or IQ. However, only half of the women invited in the follow-up studies agreed to participate. It is possible that those women who drank during pregnancy and who agreed to participate were more likely to have higher functioning children.

Chambers, a UCSD School of Medicine professor, pointed out the overwhelming evidence of more than 30 years of research supporting the conclusion that alcohol, especially alcohol consumed in a binge pattern, can be harmful to the developing baby.

"Individual women metabolize alcohol differently, and vary in terms of how susceptible they may be to having an affected child," Chambers said. "Although we do not want to alarm women who find out they are pregnant and realize that they have consumed low levels of alcohol before they knew they were pregnant, we emphasize that a 'safe' amount of alcohol that any individual woman can drink while pregnant is impossible to establish. The best advice continues to be that women should avoid alcohol entirely during the nine months that she is carrying the baby."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 162816.htm

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....didn't they use alchohol on fetuses in ''brave new world''..?..


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yup