PEDIATRICS Vol. 74 No. 3 September 1984, pp. 330-335
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Prolonged Effects of Maternal Alcohol Ingestion on the Neonatal Electroencephalogram

S. Ioffe 1, R. Childiaeva MD1, and V. Chernick MD1

1 From the Neonatal Neurophysiology Laboratory, Department of Pediatrics, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

Newborn infants of mothers who drink heavily (> 2 oz alcohol per day) during pregnancy have been shown to have hypersynchrony of the EEG. The possibility that hypersynchrony is related to acute alcohol withdrawal was tested. Eleven preterm infants of mothers who drank heavily ("alcoholic") were studued at a postnatal age of 4 to 6 weeks using power spectral analysis of EEG signals. This group was compared with a control group with similar racial and socioeconomic status. In addition, a group of ten "healthy" preterm infants was compared with a carefully matched control group. Total power of the EEG during quiet, indeterminate and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep was 162%, 183%, and 188%, respectively, in the infants whose mothers were alcoholic when compared with their control infants or with the healthy preterm infants and their control infants. It is concluded that ingestion of alcohol during pregnancy may result in potentially serious prolonged effects on brain function of the offspring, even in the absence of dysmorphology.

Key Words: neonatal electroencephalogram • alcohol abuse • alcohol ingestion during pregnancy

Submitted on August 3, 1983
Accepted on December 14, 1983




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