Perceptions of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) at a Mental Health Outpatient Treatment Provider in Minnesota

Abstract

Resulting from prenatal exposure to alcohol, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is characterized by deficits in adaptive and cognitive functioning. This disorder is typically accompanied by co-occurring disorders and conditions (e.g., mood, anxiety, psychosis, and substance use disorders). This complicated presentation of diverse symptoms makes the process of screening, assessing, and diagnosing FASD very difficult, limiting the likelihood that clients receive the treatment and services that they need. Although mental health care providers have an opportunity to intervene on behalf of clients with FASD, professionals may not be very familiar or comfortable with this complicated and life-altering disorder. The present study explores the familiarity of 79 mental health outpatient treatment professionals’ personal knowledge and training about FASD. Findings suggest that the majority of respondents had received at least some FASD training, understood the basic symptoms of FASD, and were realistic about FASD’s impact on treatment.

Modeling alcohol-induced neurotoxicity using human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived three-dimensional cerebral organoids

“…The severity of ethanol-induced brain dysfunction in humans varies greatly and can be placed on a continuum from subtle cognitive dysfunction and neurobehavioral deficits to obvious structural abnormalities (e.g., microcephaly and agenesis of corpus callosum) [4][5][6][7] . Approximately 90% of individuals with FASD suffered from mental problems such as depression, anxiety, suicide threats, impulsive behavior, attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder, inappropriate sexual behavior, or substance use disorder [8][9][10][11] . Such variability in neurobehavioral outcomes is associated with genetic background, alcohol consumption patterns, timing of maternal drinking in terms of gestational age, and nutritional intake 6 .…”

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Fixing Our Aim to Aim for the Fix

“…We, as editors of this special issue on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), are proud to present eleven papers [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. These studies focused on prevention, systems development, clinical practice, and public policy.…”

Language Development Disorder in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), a Case Study

“…FASD is a condition that functionally affects the patient as the social, adaptive, and cognitive dimensions are compromised. Its low prevalence and complex diagnosis leads to assessment difficulties (Brown and Harr 2018), language assessment becoming especially complicated. In the field of speech therapy, in particular, there is a lack of tools that would enable the effective detection of this disorder allowing early intervention through effectively implementing language learning and communication techniques from the outset.…”

“…The development of these children is further affected by environmental contextual factors that, as a rule, have a negative impact, depriving them of suitable assistance in orphanages to maximize their skills (Fagerlund et al 2012;Popova et al 2016). Outpatient treatment providers have identified some mental health disorders that commonly co-occur with FASD, principally attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, learning disorder, reactive attachment disorder, and conduct disorder (Brown and Harr 2018). These comorbidities seriously compromise language and social communication skills (Coggins et al 2007;Wyper and Rasmussen 2011).…”