Drinking During Pregnancy Can Lower Baby's IQ

Women who drink while pregnant not only run the risk of having a child with fetal alcohol syndrome, but of having a baby with alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder, a new study finds. Alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder can occur in children with prenatal exposure to alcohol. These children have alcohol-induced cognitive and behavioral problems without the characteristic facial or growth abnormalities seen among children with fetal alcohol syndrome. Children with fetal alcohol syndrome can have IQs less than 70. Now results of the new study show for the first time that children with alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder also have lower IQs. "In the past, we thought IQ effects were seen only in children with full-blown fetal alcohol syndrome," said lead researcher Sandra W. Jacobson, a professor of psychology at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. Now it has been shown that children with alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder also have intellectual impairment, she added. Jacobson's team has been following 337 inner-city black children whose mothers were recruited for the research while they were pregnant. The children, who are now 7.5 years old, were given the given the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III test. This is the IQ test most commonly given to children aged 7 to 14. During pregnancy, the researchers collected data on the mother's drinking, education and IQ, smoking and drug use, quality of parenting, maternal depression and alcohol-related problems, according to their report in the November issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.