Since fetal alcohol syndrome was first described over 35 years ago, considerable progress has been made in the delineation
of the neurocognitive profile in children with prenatal alcohol exposure. Preclinical investigators have made impressive strides
in elucidating the mechanisms of alcohol teratogenesis and in testing the effectiveness of pharmacological agents and dietary
supplementation in the amelioration of alcohol-induced deficits. Despite these advances, only limited progress has been made
in the development of evidence-based comprehensive interventions for functional impairment in alcohol-exposed children. Having
performed a search in PubMed and PsycINFO using key words, interventions, treatment, fetal alcohol syndrome, prenatal alcohol
exposure, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, we found only 12 papers on empirically-based interventions. Only two of these
interventions had been replicated and none met the criteria of “well-established,” as defined by Chambless and Hollon (Journal
of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 66(1):7–18, 1998). There has been only limited cross-fertilization of ideas between preclinical and clinical research with regard to the development
of interventions. Therefore, we propose a framework that allows integrating data from preclinical and clinical investigations
to develop comprehensive intervention programs for children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. This framework underscores
the importance of multi-level evaluations and interventions.
Keywords Empirically-based interventions – Evidence-based interventions – Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders – Fetal alcohol syndrome – Pharmacological interventions