Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) Essay -- essays research papers

Fetal inebriant Syndrome (FAS)One of the leading earns of psychogenic retardation in the United States is fetal alcoholic beverageic drink syndrome or FAS. Alcohol is the most commonly abused substance by pregnant women because its effectual and socially acceptable. A greater majority of young women ar non aware of the complications that are involved with pregnancy. They see pregnancy as a way of bringing a life into the world but do not use the necessary safety measure in their dietary habits to prevent such damage or inhibitions of such a life. By continuing on their drinking binge throughout their pregnancy, they can cause an inexplicable damage to herself and the fetus she is carrying. In my opinion, any amount of alcohol combined with pregnancy can cause devastating effects to the fetus.     "Neurobehavioral deficits ache been put in infants whose m new(prenominal)s reported fewer than seven standard drinks a week, and the effects of drinking in early pregnancy (the first trimester) are among the more severe of alcohols effects on the fetus, causing irreversible facial malformations and neurological damage" (Kaskutas & vitamin A Graves, 2001). Lee Ann Kaskutas and Karen Graves believes that the precision of standard of how much a woman drinks throughout pregnancy is very of the essence(p) to the assessment of fetal lay on the line (2001). The title of their study, "Pre-pregnancy drinking How drink surface affects risk assessment", can help us pause that the self-reliant variables are the drink sizes and the dependent variable is the risk assessment.      From the introduction section, I have learned that in the United States, American Indians and African Americans are at the highest risk for FAS. Even though there have been advances in research methodology, people can have a mis designion on the concept of what is a standard drink. When asked how much they drank on previous surveys, p revious participants had a misconception on the drink sizes. "This has implications for FAS risk assessment, as underestimates of alcohol consumptions could lead researchers to conclude that increasingly lower safe thresholds of consumption are called for" (Kaskutas & Graves, 2001). The authors found that half of the subjects under study have underestimated the amount of alcohol in their various drinks. The authors believed that most women ... ...ance on standard drinks results in considerable underestimate of alcohol consumption, especially among the heavier drinkers and those consuming higher alcohol content beverages" (Kaskutas & Graves, 2001). It is concluded in this research that standard drink sizes assume a much smaller size than self-defined drink sizes. The authors did note that this study has some(prenominal) limitations. First, their sample included only few white subjects with no Hispanics, Asians and other ethnic groups. Also, "the vessels metho dology should be used with expanded samples to determine whether ample drink sizes are represented among other groups of pregnant women" (Kaskutas & Graves, 2001). prospective research could include specifications of standard drink size for different types of alcohol when assessing risk for FAS. "Consideration of drink size represents a promising driveway both for alcohol research and for alcohol prevention and education, with pregnant women and more broadly with the general population" (Kaskutas & Graves, 2001). ReferenceKaskutas, L.A., Graves, K. (2001). Pre-pregnancy How drink sizes affects risk assessment. Addiction, Vol 96(8), 1199-1209.