Abstract

The fetal alcohol syndrome is the third most common recognizable cause of mental retardation in the United States. Many of the features of the fetal alcohol syndrome are secondary to the effect of alcohol on brain development. These include microcephaly, short palpebral fissures, the long smooth philtrum and thin vermilion of the upper lip, joint anomalies, altered palmar crease pattern, and mental retardation. Approximately 40% of babies born to alcoholic women and 11% of babies born to nonalcoholic moderately drinking women have evidence of the prenatal effect of alcohol. Alcohol, like other teratogens, causes a spectrum of defects. Thus, affected children may show great variability from the fullblown fetal alcohol syndrome to much milder effects of alcohol, some of which may not be obvious until school age. A

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