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Psychiatric comorbidity in foetal alcohol syndrome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Raja A.S. Mukherjee ,
Sheila Hollins  and
Jeremy Turk
Raja A.S. Mukherjee
Affiliation:
Division of Mental Health, Social and Developmental Psychiatry, St George's, University of London, London SW17 0RE, e-mail: rmukherj@sgul.ac.uk
Sheila Hollins
Affiliation:
Division of Mental Health, Social and Developmental Psychiatry, St George's, University of London
Jeremy Turk
Affiliation:
Division of Clinical Development Sciences, St George's, University of London
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Abstract

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Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 30 , Issue 5 , May 2006 , pp. 194 - 195
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2006

With increasing media interest and public awareness and reports from North America regarding the prevalence of psychiatric comorbidity in foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS; Reference Famy, Streissguth and UnisFamy et al, 1998), concerns are being raised locally as to the knowledge of mental healthcare professionals of this issue. Clinical work with this group suggested that the wider mental health community has limited knowledge of FAS as a condition, despite international figures suggesting a prevalence rate of 1% in the community (Reference O'LearyO’Leary, 2004). Hence one of us (R.A.S.M.) devised a brief questionnaire to determine mental health practitioners’ knowledge of the condition. The questionnaire was used at three local academic programmes attended by a mix of mental healthcare professionals.

Everyone (n=33) had heard of FAS as a condition but only five professionals felt able to recognise it. One person (a psychologist) considered FAS in the differential diagnosis and nine knew where to refer a person with FAS if the diagnosis was suspected or found. Only one individual with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) was known to those professionals attending the programmes.

These results are similar to those from other studies (Reference Nanson, Bolaria and SnyderNanson et al, 1995) and highlight the need for education in this area in order to guide UK practitioners in the recognition of the condition and what can be done to help affected individuals and their families. We believe there is an urgent need for resources to undertake this task.

References

Famy, C., Streissguth, A. P. & Unis, A. S. (1998) Mental illness in adults with fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol effects. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 552–554.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nanson, J. L., Bolaria, R., Snyder, R. E., et al (1995) Physician awareness of fetal alcohol syndrome: survey of pediatricians and general practitioners. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 152, 1071–1076.Google Scholar
O'Leary, C. M. (2004) Fetal alcohol syndrome: diagnosis, epidemiology and developmental outcomes. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 40, 2–7.Google Scholar
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