21.

The researchers found that drinking during other stages of pregnancy, including late pregnancy, also increased the risk.

Alati's group concluded "Our findings support a biological contribution to the origin of alcohol disorders and suggest that greater attention should be given to the role of the programming effect of in utero alcohol exposure to the development of alcohol disorders in adulthood."

Dr. Redford Williams, the director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Center and a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University said, "This paper makes a convincing case that increased maternal alcohol consumption, especially early in pregnancy, is likely a cause of alcohol problems in young adulthood."

Williams said that it is known that increased maternal alcohol use is associated with altered brain development in the fetus, as well as fetal alcohol syndrome in newborns.

Williams added, "The major potential problem in interpreting these findings is the possibility, unexamined in this study, that genetic factors that influence maternal drinking may also be present in the offspring and contribute -- in addition to, or via, an interaction with the increased exposure to alcohol to the offspring's drinking behavior at age 21,".

However he said, "Whatever the mechanism eventually turns out to be, these findings make a strong case for not drinking during pregnancy."



Source-Medindia
NLA