An Overview of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs): FASD-Informed Care to Inform Student Support

Brief History Of Fasd

Alcohol is a known teratogen, a substance that disrupts the typical development of an embryo or fetus leading to what are referred to as congenital disabilities, present since birth. Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) can cause fetus mortality, result in premature birth, and impact neurological and physical development throughout the lifespan. These impacts are now referred to under the umbrella term Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), which encompasses the variability in the resulting levels of deficit related to PAE.

Within his reflection regarding the history of “alcoholic fetopathies,” seminal researcher, Dr. Paul Lemoine (1997), indicated that the suspected effects of alcohol use during pregnancy had been documented as early as the time of the Macedonian Empire by Aristotle. Physicians in the 19^th century described a syndrome of hypotrophy, microcephaly, and facial dysmorphology that were attributed to congenital syphilis, which Lemoine suspected were cases of PAE due to co-occurring maternal alcoholism. In 1957, Dr. Jacqueline Rouquette described children born to parents with known alcohol use disorder (AUD); however, the published thesis went largely unnoticed (Lemoine, 1997). The aforementioned French pediatrician and researcher, Dr. Paul Lemoine, and pediatric resident from the United States, Dr. Christy Ulleland, concurrently identified patterns of dysmorphology, growth deficiency, and developmental delay in children with prenatal alcohol exposure (Lemoine et al., 1968/2003; Ulleland et al., 1970; Ulleland, 1972). These findings were corroborated and consequentially led Drs. Kenneth Jones and David Smith to coin the term Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in 1973 (Jones et al. 1973; Jones & Smith 1973). The naming of this syndrome was unique in that they chose to reference etiology in lieu of calling it the Jones-Smith Syndrome, like many other disorders before.