Neuropsychological deficits in fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effects.

A clinical sample of 19 school-aged native children diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or fetal alcohol effects (FAE) was compared with age- and sex-matched normal controls. Results on a battery of intellectual and neuropsychological tests indicated large and significant differences between alcohol-affected children and controls. FAS differed significantly from controls on measures of intellectual abilities, while FAE did not; FAS mean scores on these measures were significantly lower than FAE means. For neuropsychological measures, FAS were significantly poorer than controls on most measures, while FAE showed deficits compared with controls only on grip strength. The results suggest that neuropsychological measures would be a valuable supplement to intellectual measures for the purpose of assessing alcohol effects because they are less vulnerable than intellectual measures to the influence of cultural and educational experiences.