The Discovery of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

The term Fetal Alcohol Syndrome [5] (FAS) was first published in a 1973 article in the British medical journal The Lancet. In that article, a group of pediatricians and psychiatrists at the University of Washington Medical School helped to define the morphological defects and developmental delays that can affect children born to alcoholic mothers. Those observations include preand post-natal growth deficiencies, minor facial abnormalities, and damage to the developing brain that can result in behavioral, learning, and cognitive abnormalities.