Does paternal pre-conceptional drinking affects development of autism spectrum disorder, FAS and ADHD in children?
The aim of this study was to investigate the association between paternal drinking before conception and the development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Parental alcohol consumption is mentioned as one of the main potential development factors of these disorders. There are already a large number of studies proving a strong link between maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy and FAS and hypothesis concerning links with ADHD and ASD. Paternal pre-conceptional alcohol consumption impact on fetus neurodevelopment is not so extensively researched and discussed as the case of maternal drinking. However, a number of experimental studies on animals have demonstrated decreased litter size, increased prevalence of low-weight fetuses at birth, risk of malformations and cognitive and behavioral impairment, which include learning and memory deficits, hyperactivity, and poor stress tolerance. Both animal and human studies proved the adverse impact of alcohol on sperm that may cause developmental disorders of offspring. In this study, the existing data on human paternal preconceptual alcohol consumption and its effect on ASD, FAS, ADHD are reviewed.