Pregnancy and alcohol misuse

doi:10.1136/bmj.b845

Published 30 March 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b845
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b845

Practice

Pregnancy Plus

Pregnancy and alcohol misuse

Irene Guerrini, consultant psychiatrist in addictions¹, Siobhan Jackson, borough lead in substance misuse², Francis Keaney, consultant psychiatrist in addictions³

¹ Bexley Substance Misuse Service, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, Kent DA8 1RQ, ² Beresford Project, Greenwich and Antenatal Clinic, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Woolwich, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, Woolwich, London SE18 6LZ, ³ South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, The Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AZ

Correspondence to: I Guerrini irene.guerrini@slam.nhs.uk

How does alcohol misuse affect pregnancy and babies’ outcomes,and how is the problem managed in pregnant women?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The debate about alcohol use in pregnancy is still wide open,even though ethanol is well known to be teratogenic and fetotoxicwhen consumed in excess during pregnancy. A consensus has notbeen reached about the "safe limit," mainly because of a lackof scientific evidence.

A 32 year old woman was referred to an outpatientsubstance misuse centre to be treated for her alcohol misuse.The patient had had a baby six months before. The child wasborn at term but was small for gestational age. However, noother features of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder were highlightedat birth. The mother had been drinking excessively since thebeginning of the pregnancy but she denied drinking on a dailybasis and denied having had any withdrawal symptoms. Becauseof the mother’s alcohol misuse and problematic relationshipwith her husband, the child was given into voluntary fostercare when he was . . . [Full text of this article]

Fetal alcohol syndrome
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder