FASD Kids at Higher Risk of Epilepsy, Study Finds

Six percent of children who had Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) later developed epilepsy, compared to a rate of less than one percent in the general population, according to researchers at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

Study author James Reynolds and colleagues studied 425 individuals ages 2-49 and found that epilepsy risk was highest among those who had been exposed to alcohol in the first trimester or throughout their mother’s pregnancy.

The study was published online and will appear in the June 2010 issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.