Overall, studies with animal models of FASD demonstrate a wide array of benefits of pharmacological, nutritional, and environmental interventions to both brain structure/function and behavior. However, relatively few clinical studies have evaluated such treatments in FASD. There are some important potential limitations to these treatments. First, many of the treatments have very specific targets and consequences, whereas the range of deficits in FASD is quite varied. For example, in animal models of FASD, nutritional supplementation with choline has a greater positive effect on hippocampal function compared with cerebellar function; in contrast, motor training may be better able to target cerebellar effects in this population. Interventions that use multiple intervention strategies (e.g., nutrition and exercise) as well as more traditional interventions (educational, speech, occupational and/or physical therapies) may mitigate a wider range of cognitive impairments when translated to clinical cases of FASD. Given the numerous successes in identifying potential interventions in preclinical research, the upcoming years should increase translation of these findings to clinical research and eventually to health care settings.
