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Treating Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
The effects of fetal alcohol exposure may be more profound than researchers hoped. Results of a new study reveal the prenatal damage to peptides in the fetal brain may endure into adulthood despite environmental enrichment provided in a child’s early years.
Neurotrophins — a family of peptides produced in the nervous system — are critical for normal development of the brain. Research has shown prenatal alcohol exposure may be particularly destructive for neurotrophins, with effects lasting into adulthood.
“Neurotrophins also play important roles in learning and memory, and contribute to the repair of the brain following injury or stress,” study author Robert F. Berman, Ph.D., a professor in the department of neurological surgery at the University of California — Davis, was quoted as saying.
Dr. Berman said treatment of other types of brain injury with environmental enrichment therapy could be beneficial. However, new research in rats suggests the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure and environmental rearing conditions on neurotrophin levels are largely independent.
“In this study, we found that being raised in an enriched environment, with ample opportunities for motor and sensory stimulation, and social interactions, unexpectedly resulted in reduced levels of neurotrophins in some areas of the cortex, but not in other areas which are well known to be affected by prenatal alcohol exposure,” Dr. Berman said.
He went on to say additional research is needed to devise better treatment strategies for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.
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SOURCE: To be published in the October 2008 edition of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
THE Queensland Government’s proposal to see the alcohol limit cut to 0.02 across Australia has been labelled as “nonsense” by alcohol and accident experts. Motoring groups, police, accident research centres and hotelliers all rejected moves to slash the drink-driving limit outlined in a Queensland Government discussion paper released yesterday, arguing it would make little difference….
MY “LEGAL ecstasy party pills” arrive in small, white medicine containers, complete with recommended dosage and a safety seal. “Herbal supplements,” reads the package, but these drugs promise far more – guaranteeing to “add extra kick to your partying” by meddling with the body and mind. It’s a drug high, but one that “will not….
A Generation of Victorian teenagers are drinking themselves into oblivion, with more than a quarter of 15-year-olds bingeing until they black out – the point at which brain damage is likely to occur. Research has also found that more than a third of 11-year-old boys have consumed alcohol. The figures, contained in a study by….
A recent survey found that the number of people who have entered treatment for addiction to benzos such as Valium and Xanax as well as narcotic painkillers such as Oxycodone has increased more than 500% in the past ten years. The overall increase in substance abuse treatment admissions during this period of time was just….
A private member’s bill re-introduced in the House of Commons on Monday would allow law enforcement officers to arrest those who procure ingredients with the intent of manufacturing ecstasy or methamphetamine. The proposed legislation, Bill C-475, An Act to Amend the Controlled and Substances Act, was originally tabled by Peace River MP Chris Warkentin in….
