Keywords
Citation
(2013), "2012 Awards for Excellence", Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Vol. 7 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/amhid.2013.54207aaa.002
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2012 Awards for Excellence
Article Type: 2012 Awards for Excellence From: Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, Volume 7, Issue 1
The following article was selected for this year's Outstanding Paper Award for Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities
“Autism and autistic traits in people exposed to heavy prenatal alcohol: data from a clinical series of 21 individuals and nested case control study”
Raja MukherjeeBorders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Michael LaytonSouth Cherwell Community Learning Disability Team, UK
Evan YacoubJohn Howard Centre, London, UK
Jeremy TurkInstitute of Psychiatry, Maudsley Foundation NHS Trust, UK
Associations between fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and other conditions have been reported, but the links between FAS and autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) remain unclear. This study explored the relationship between FAS and ASD in individuals attending a specialist diagnostic clinic. Consecutive referrals over 24 months to a specialist neurodevelopmental clinic were evaluated using gold standard methods for FAS diagnosis and ASD. The first 18-month cohort who met criteria for ASD were compared with controls attending the same clinic but who had not experienced prenatal alcohol exposure (nested data). Data for the whole group were also collected. Twenty-one fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) individuals were assessed and 16 (72 per cent) met ICD-10 criteria for childhood autism. Further significant differences between the prenatally exposed and non-exposed group with ASD were found in the nested study. The research shows an association between heavy prenatal alcohol exposure and ASD. As this is a small sample in a specialist clinic, the study suggests that a larger, more population-based study of those exposed to heavy prenatal alcohol is warranted.
Keywords Alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder, Autism, Autistic spectrum disorders, Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, Fetal alcohol syndrome, Intellectual disability, Learning disabilities, Social functioning
www.emeraldinsight.com/10.5042/amhid.2011.0015
This article originally appeared in Volume 5 Number 1, 2011, pp. 42-49, Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities
Outstanding Reviewers
Dr Max Pickard
Dr Robert Winterhalder