Direct and Indirect Effects of Prenatal Alcohol Damage on Executive Function

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Abstract
Patients with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE) often have difficulty functioning appropriately in everyday life and seem to employ poor problem-solving strategies. Tests of executive function are relevant for quantifying the functional deficits and underlying real-life problems associated with prenatal alcohol exposure. This study considers two pathways for the effects of prenatal alcohol on executive function: a direct effect and an indirect effect through prenatal alcohol's effect on IQ. We compared 30 men who had been diagnosed with FAS or FAE with young adults participating in a longitudinal prospective study (n = 419) and 15 control participants that comprised a comparison group. This study is unique in its analysis of the same battery of assessments of executive function in both a large low dose longitudinal study sample and a clinically diagnosed group. Participants were evaluated on 9 tests (including 58 scores) of executive function. For some but not all of the tests i...