CDC recommendation supported by data, neurologist says
If you’re a sexually active woman of childbearing age, either use birth control or don’t drink. That’s the latest message from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The agency cited the oft-hidden damage of fetal alcohol syndrome.
Fetal exposure to alcohol carries a risk at any dose, with the potential to harm both the body and the brain, said Michael Charness of Harvard Medical School, an expert on the neurological effects of alcohol.
The Gazette spoke with Charness, chief of staff for the Harvard-affiliated VA Boston Healthcare System, about the CDC’s recommendations, the response by some that they’re intrusive, and the science behind fetal alcohol syndrome.
GAZETTE: A lot of people have heard of fetal alcohol syndrome, but what specifically is it and what are the symptoms?
CHARNESS: Fetal alcohol syndrome includes a specific pattern of minor facial anomalies … a thin upper lip, short palpebral fissures — the space between the inner and outer corners of the eye — and a smooth nasal philtrum — the little groove right underneath the nose. Having a couple of those facial anomalies is the first criterion.
The second criterion is either pre- or postnatal growth deficiency. There are different systems for defining this, but less than the 10th percentile [of normal growth] is used in the United States. Evidence of central nervous system dysfunction is the third criterion, either structural brain abnormalities or a head circumference that is [in the lowest] 10 percent of the population.