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Alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis are the substances most frequently used during pregnancy, and opioid-exposed pregnancies have increased fourfold. The purpose of this review is to describe the prevalence and consequences of prenatal exposure to alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and opioids. Currently available screening questionnaires for prenatal substance use are summarized and contrasted with the...

Introduction

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is linked to miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm birth, sudden infant death syndrome, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).¹ Although PAE is the sole necessary cause of FASD, the etiology of this leading preventable cause of disability is multifaceted and complex, including lifestyle, maternal, sociodemographic, social, gestational, and genetic...

Alcohol exposure of the developing embryo and fetus in utero can have a wide range of detrimental effects collectively referred to as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). Researchers are intensively investigating the mechanisms that may contribute to alcohol’s effects on the developing organism and to the resulting consequences, particularly with respect to the cognitive and behavioral...

Introduction

Although the awareness of the negative impact of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) was already alluded to in ancient writings¹ and the impact of ethanol embryopathy in animal models was studied as early as 1910,² the conceptualization of a syndrome associated with PAE was not recognized within modern medicine until the mid-20th century.^3,4 The syndrome or disorder was not uniformly...

Introduction

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is a necessary cause of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), a group of alcohol-related conditions characterized by neurodevelopmental problems. Although PAE is associated with many adverse physical, neurodevelopmental, and social outcomes, the most commonly studied are neurodevelopmental—primarily behavioral and cognitive—outcomes. Associations...

During the critical developmental periods of childhood when neural plasticity is high, exposure to early life stress (ELS) or trauma may lead to enduring changes in physiological stress systems and enhanced vulnerability for psychopathological conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) in adulthood. Clinical and preclinical studies have sought to...

There are two major ways of publishing scientific data and results: (1) the standard peer-reviewed paper, which dates back to volume 1 of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1665; and (2) online distribution of data, resources, and software using the Internet that dates back a mere 21 years to the first Web site at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)...

Although research on alcohol-related disparities among women is a highly understudied area, evidence shows that racial/ethnic minority women, sexual minority women, and women of low socioeconomic status (based on education, income, or residence in disadvantaged neighborhoods) are more likely to experience alcohol-related problems. These problems include alcohol use disorder, particularly after...