Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Linked to Behavior Problems in Teens

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Medical Center new study warns that teens whose mothers drank alcohol regularly throughout the first trimester of pregnancy have a threefold increased risk of developing severe behavior problems.

The Study

The researchers collected data from five hundred and ninety-two children and their mothers. The mothers were evaluated when they four and seven months pregnant and shortly after birth and then, along with their children, when the children were eight months old, eighteen months old and three, six, ten, fourteen and sixteen years old. The mother’s quantity, frequency and patterns of alcohol use including beer, wine and liquor that the women drank during pregnancy were summarized as the average daily amount of the alcohol consumed.

The Study Results

“When the children were 16 years old, those whose mothers had consumed, on average, one or more alcoholic drinks a day in the first trimester of pregnancy were three times more likely to meet the criteria for conduct disorder than were teens whose mothers had consumed less than one drink a day or no alcohol at all, the researchers found.”

Conclusion

The conduct disorder is a serious one these teens have the behavior can last for more than a year and include theft, aggression towards people and animals, ignoring the rules, and property destruction are a few of the results of this type of behavior.

Source: The study is published in the March issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.