Last term we learnt about a series of conditions with learning disabilities and
brain maldevelopment. One condition we looked at was FAS, which is a spectrum
disorder whereby babies acquire problems due to their mothers drinking during
pregnancy. Common features include stunted growth, drug and alcohol problems,
sexual deviancy, antisocial behaviour, ADHD-like symptoms, flat mid face, small
head circumference, smooth upper lip, intellectual disability,
Within 2 weeks of finishing my neuroscience module I found myself working with a girl with this condition in the mental health rehabilitation hospital. She was 18 and was on a 6 month stay at the unit. She was aggressive and mentally unstable but she told me of her ambitions to learn psychology so she could help kids. She had been sexually abused twice and had previous drug habits. She also told me that she was always running away from her foster mum.
It's sad to think how different her life could have been if she hadn't been born with her condition. She seemed to follow the pattern that we were taught about at medical school. It is almost as if children born with FAS are predisposed to have difficult lives with significant statistics of suffers having drug problems and prison sentences. The patient I spoke to wasn't intellectually impaired but she did have most of the other features of the condition.
I wonder how hard it is knowing that problems could be prevented if your mother hadn't drank when pregnant. Obviously things are far more complicated than this; there are other environmental factors which contribute to a person and their mental health and it is difficult to know and understand the mothers' circumstances, but it does make you think.
Within 2 weeks of finishing my neuroscience module I found myself working with a girl with this condition in the mental health rehabilitation hospital. She was 18 and was on a 6 month stay at the unit. She was aggressive and mentally unstable but she told me of her ambitions to learn psychology so she could help kids. She had been sexually abused twice and had previous drug habits. She also told me that she was always running away from her foster mum.
It's sad to think how different her life could have been if she hadn't been born with her condition. She seemed to follow the pattern that we were taught about at medical school. It is almost as if children born with FAS are predisposed to have difficult lives with significant statistics of suffers having drug problems and prison sentences. The patient I spoke to wasn't intellectually impaired but she did have most of the other features of the condition.
I wonder how hard it is knowing that problems could be prevented if your mother hadn't drank when pregnant. Obviously things are far more complicated than this; there are other environmental factors which contribute to a person and their mental health and it is difficult to know and understand the mothers' circumstances, but it does make you think.
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