The Overlooked Disorder
There are five diagnostic conditions listed by the Institute of Medicine under the Fetal Alcohol Specturm Disorders (FASD) umbrella: FAS with confirmed maternal alcohol exposure, FAS without confirmed maternal alcohol exposure, Partial FAS with confirmed maternal alcohol exposure, Alcohol Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder (ARND), and Alcohol Related Birth Defects (ARBD).
These five FASD conditions generally involve a complex combination of abnormalities that can have profound and lifelong effects on an individual’s ability to function in an organized and pro-social manner. Unfortunately, there are very few specialists in the United States who are trained to diagnose and treat these conditions because education about FASD is not part of the standard curriculum in any medical school or graduate psychology program. As a result, most medical doctors and psychologists enter the workforce with limited knowledge about a condition that can involve significant and permanent brain damage. Because the observable physical manifestations of FAS (i.e., facial abnormalities and growth deficits) generally disappear during puberty, FASD conditions are difficult to detect in adolescents and adults, even for physicians trained in dysmorphology. Consequently, it is generally accepted in the field that accurate diagnosis of individuals over the age of 12 must involve multidisciplinary analysis from multiple perspectives, with emphasis necessarily on the neurological and cognitive-behavioral symptoms of FASD in lieu of observable facial dysmorphology and growth deficits.