Prolonged effects of maternal alcohol ingestion on the neonatal electroencephalogram.

Newborn infants of mothers who drink heavily (greater than 2 oz alcohol per day) during pregnancy have been shown to have hypersynchrony of the EEG. The possibility that hypersynchrony is related to acute alcohol withdrawal was tested. Eleven preterm infants of mothers who drank heavily ("alcoholic") were studied at a postnatal age of 4 to 6 weeks using power spectral analysis of EEG signals. This group was compared with a control group with similar racial and socioeconomic status. In addition, a group of ten "healthy" preterm infants was compared with a carefully matched control group. Total power of the EEG during quiet, indeterminate and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep was 162%, 183%, and 188%, respectively, in the infants whose mothers were alcoholic when compared with their control infants or with the healthy preterm infants and their control infants. It is concluded that ingestion of alcohol during pregnancy may result in potentially serious prolonged effects on brain function of the offspring, even in the absence of dysmorphology.