Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite negative results. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records, such as in ancient Egypt and in the Bible, and remains widespread; the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated there were 283 million people with alcohol use disorders worldwide as of 2016. The term alcoholism was first coined in 1852, but alcoholism and alcoholic are stigmatizing and discourage seeking treatment, so clinical diagnostic terms such as alcohol use disorder or alcohol dependence are used instead.
Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's syndrome, is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication combined with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. The syndrome has been merged with other conditions into autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is no longer considered a stand-alone diagnosis. It was considered to differ from other diagnoses that were merged into ASD by relatively unimpaired spoken language and intelligence.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that are pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inappropriate.
Teratology is the study of abnormalities of physiological development in organisms during their life span. It is a sub-discipline in medical genetics which focuses on the classification of congenital abnormalities in dysmorphology caused by teratogens. Teratogens are substances that may cause non-heritable birth defects via a toxic effect on an embryo or fetus. Defects include malformations, disruptions, deformations, and dysplasia that may cause stunted growth, delayed mental development, or other congenital disorders that lack structural malformations. The related term developmental toxicity includes all manifestations of abnormal development that are caused by environmental insult. The extent to which teratogens will impact an embryo is dependent on several factors, such as how long the embryo has been exposed, the stage of development the embryo was in when exposed, the genetic makeup of the embryo, and the transfer rate of the teratogen.
Alcohol abuse encompasses a spectrum of unhealthy drinking behaviors, ranging from binge drinking and alcohol dependence to addiction resulting in physical withdrawal symptoms when abruptly stopping the intake of alcohol for more than 24 hours.
A social skill is any competence facilitating interaction and communication with others where social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning these skills is called socialization. Lack of such skills can cause social awkwardness.
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are a group of conditions that can occur in a person who is exposed to alcohol as a result of their mother drinking during pregnancy. Symptoms can include an abnormal appearance, short height, low body weight, small head size, poor coordination, behavioral problems, learning difficulties, and problems with hearing and sight. Those affected are more likely to have trouble with school, the legal system, alcohol, other drugs, and other areas of high risk. The several forms of the condition are: fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), partial fetal alcohol syndrome (pFAS), alcohol-related birth defects (ARBD), static encephalopathy, alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND) and neurobehavioral disorder associated with prenatal alcohol exposure (ND-PAE). As of 2016, the Swedish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services accepted only FAS as a diagnosis, seeing the evidence as inconclusive with respect to other types.
Nonverbal learning disability (NVLD) is proposed category of neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by core deficits in visual-spatial processing and a significant discrepancy between verbal and nonverbal intelligence. A review of papers found that proposed diagnostic criteria were inconsistent. Proposed additional diagnostic criteria include intact verbal intelligence, and deficits in the following: visuoconstruction abilities, speech prosody, fine-motor coordination, mathematical reasoning, visuospatial memory and social skills. NVLD is not recognised by the DSM-5 and is not clinically distinct from learning disorder.
Cognitive disengagement syndrome (CDS) is an attention syndrome characterised by prominent dreaminess, mental fogginess, hypoactivity, sluggishness, slow reaction time, staring frequently, inconsistent alertness, and a slow working speed.
Neurodevelopmental disorders are a group of neurological disorders that affect the development of the nervous system, leading to abnormal brain function which may affect emotion, learning ability, self-control, and memory. The effects of neurodevelopmental disorders tend to last for a person's lifetime.
Alcohol has a number of effects on health. Short-term effects of alcohol consumption include intoxication and dehydration. Long-term effects of alcohol include changes in the metabolism of the liver and brain, several types of cancer and alcohol use disorder. Alcohol intoxication affects the brain, causing slurred speech, clumsiness, and delayed reflexes. Alcohol consumption can cause hypoglycemia in diabetics on certain medications, such as insulin or sulfonylurea, by blocking gluconeogenesis. There is an increased risk of developing an alcohol use disorder for teenagers while their brain is still developing. Adolescents who drink have a higher probability of injury including death.
Developmental coordination disorder (DCD), also known as developmental motor coordination disorder, developmental dyspraxia or simply dyspraxia, is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired coordination of physical movements as a result of brain messages not being accurately transmitted to the body. Deficits in fine or gross motor skills movements interfere with activities of daily living. It is often described as disorder in skill acquisition, where the learning and execution of coordinated motor skills is substantially below that expected given the individual's chronological age. Difficulties may present as clumsiness, slowness and inaccuracy of performance of motor skills. It is also often accompanied by difficulty with organisation and/or problems with attention, working memory and time management.
Alcoholism in family systems refers to the conditions in families that enable alcoholism and the effects of alcoholic behavior by one or more family members on the rest of the family. Mental health professionals are increasingly considering alcoholism and addiction as diseases that flourish in and are enabled by family systems.
Several factors complicate the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome (AS), an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Like other ASD forms, Asperger syndrome is characterized by impairment in social interaction accompanied by restricted and repetitive interests and behavior; it differs from the other ASDs by having no general delay in language or cognitive development. Problems in diagnosis include disagreement among diagnostic criteria, the controversy over the distinction between AS and other ASD forms or even whether AS exists as a separate syndrome, and over- and under-diagnosis for non-technical reasons. As with other ASD forms, early diagnosis is important, and differential diagnosis must consider several other conditions.
Autism, formally called autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication and social interaction, and repetitive or restricted patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities, which can include hyper- and hyporeactivity to sensory input. Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning that it can manifest very differently in each person. For example, some are nonspeaking, while others have proficient spoken language. Because of this, there is wide variation in the support needs of people across the autism spectrum.
Developmental toxicity is any developmental malformation that is caused by the toxicity of a chemical or pathogen. It is the structural or functional alteration, reversible or irreversible, which interferes with homeostasis, normal growth, differentiation, development or behavior. Developmental toxicity is caused by environmental insult, which includes drugs, alcohol, diet, toxic chemicals, and physical factors.
The National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS) is a non-profit public health charitable organization focused on the issue of fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). NOFAS was founded in 1990 and advocates for improved public policy for people affected by FASD, provides resources for people living with FASD, and educates the public about FASD and the risks of drinking alcohol while pregnant. NOFAS has a network of over 40 affiliates around the United States.
Metadoxine, also known as pyridoxine-pyrrolidone carboxylate, is a drug used to treat chronic and acute alcohol intoxication. Metadoxine accelerates alcohol clearance from the blood.
Alcohol use in pregnancy includes use of alcohol at any time during gestation, including the time before a mother-to-be is aware that she is pregnant. Alcohol use at some point during pregnancy is common and appears to be rising in prevalence in the United States.
Wladimir Wertelecki is a Pediatrician and Medical Geneticist who in 1974 established one of the first free-standing Departments of Medical Genetics at the new South Alabama University College of Medicine in Mobile, Alabama, U.S.A. Since 1996 and following his retirement as Chairman and Emeritus Professor of Medical Genetics, Pediatrics, and Pathology, he has continued his investigations of developmental anomalies and their prevention as a Project Scientist at the Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego. Since 1996, his research has focused mainly on alcohol and ionizing radiation impacts on congenital anomalies. He is the author over 135 scientific reports. In 2000, he established the OMNI-Net Ukraine Programs to investigate reproductive risks posed by exposures to alcohol and Chornobyl ionizing radiation. OMNI-Net Ukraine established a population-based registry for the epidemiological surveillance of congenital anomalies. It qualified to become full member of EUROCAT, a network of over 38 such registries across Europe. OMNI-Net Ukraine is the sole full member of EUROCAT conducting such investigations in regions formerly ruled by the USSR. OMNI-Net Ukraine also implements a variety of collaborative investigations with experts from UCSD, Emory, and other Universities sponsored by the Collaborative Initiative on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders funded by then National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIH). Many components of the OMNI-Net Ukraine programs introduced by Wertelecki were previously implemented in Alabama. He established a regional network of clinics across southern Alabama and West Florida and in 1978 organized the Southern Genetic Group, which expanded into the South-Eastern Regional Genetics Group, enhancing genetic services in six states. Wertelecki also contributed to the efforts by local Native-Americans to gain Federal Recognition as Native-Americans in Alabama. In 1992, he made a presentation to the US Senate regarding the reproductive risks posed by the Chornobyl radiation. Following an initial sponsorship by USAID, he established OMNI-Net programs in Ukraine, a not-for-profit network to provide training and to engage Ukrainian professionals to conduct monitoring of the frequency of birth defects. OMNI-Net teams promptly detected an epidemic of spina bifida and associated malformations collectively known as neural tube defects (NTD). The frequency of these malformations and the associated child mortality are persistently the highest in Europe. From the start, OMNI-Net advocates for Ukrainian authorities to introduce folic acid fortification programs, a measure that will significantly reduce the epidemic and related mortality. Flour fortification with folic acid is safe, effective and affordable as shown by implementations adopted by 80 countries. Currently, a legislative initiative to establish an NTD prevention program is under consideration by the Ukrainian National Parliament. OMNI-Net has also documented that thousands of pregnant women continue to accumulate in their bodies through eating, drinking, and inhaling radioactive elements (nuclides). Whole body counts of incorporated Cs-137 by pregnant women are much higher than in women residing away from Chornobyl radiation impacted regions. OMNI-Net teams seek national and international partners to elucidate the inherent risks of such facts. Although some reports state that Chornobyl radiation is not biologically harmful, OMNI-Net researchers note that such studies did not include pregnant women with known levels of incorporated nuclides. The association of incorporated levels of Cs-137 with prevalence of birth defects remains to be clarified. Another frequent known cause of birth defects in Ukraine is alcohol consumption by pregnant women. Since 2006, OMNI-Net has implemented an international initiative focused on fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. In summary, OMNI-Net is effectively a catalist for joint scientific collaborations of Ukrainian and International investigations.
