A test-retest study of intelligence in patients with fetal alcohol syndrome: implications for care.

Successive IQ scores of 40 patients with fetal alcohol syndrome or possible fetal alcohol effects were compared to examine stability of IQ into mid-adolescence. There were no significant differences in IQ scores across time for patients with fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effects. Group means and individual IQ scores remained stable over the average test-retest interval of 8 years. These data demonstrate the long-term enduring consequences of prenatal brain damage in the fetal alcohol syndrome, an entirely preventable developmental disability.