FASD Professional Handbook - Research Paper Example

FASD is an important preventable cause of intellectual; dysfunction and behavioral problems.This hand-book reviews amongst others current prevalence, clinical features, pathogenesis and differential diagnosis of FASD. It also highlights the need for social workers to beware of the condition. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), currently considered part of FASD, was first described in 1973.In spite of what has been learned since: a lot of challenges still remain in diagnosis and prevention. My goal is to explore fetal terminology, the effects, prevalence, and prevention of exposure, and identification.

I will identify what is known about who is at risk, and with this knowledge social workers should better be able to identify risk pregnancies and alcohol affected individuals and thus identify fetal alcohol exposure early enough. FAS are diagnosed when characteristic facial dysmorphology, poor growth, and central nervous system abnormalities are present, with or without prenatal alcohol exposure. Of importance is the fact that it has been accepted that affected individuals may have some but not all of the FAS characteristics, research has not identified a reliable way of defining those individuals less affected.

Fetal Alcohol effects (FAE), Prenatal Alcohol Effects (PAE), Alcohol Related Birth Defects(ARBD), and Alcohol-relate Neurodevelopment Disorder(ARND) have all been suggested as terms identifying those children with a spectrum of problems, but not necessarily FAS. The diagnosis of fetal alcohol effects or ARBD and the estimation of their incidence are more difficult than that of FAS. Importantly, the specifics of the FAS diagnosis for alcohol make it scientifically useful and meaningful. Significantly ARBD and ARND, however are not syndromes in the classic sense, but the presentation of FAS signs individually associated with, but not specific to prenatal alcohol exposure (Kelly, 2000).

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