A team of NSU researchers who’ve already spent seven years investigating Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancies (AEPs) received a $1 million grant to expand their research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The team includes internationally renowned psychologists and Ph.D.s Linda Sobell and Mark Sobell—both affiliated with the Guided Self-Change Clinic at NSU’s Center for Psychological Studies—and Kenneth Johnson, D.O., vice chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Broward General Medical Center and director of NSU’s Women’s Health Center.
As part of their ongoing research, they have conducted an epidemiological study on the nature of alcohol-exposed pregnancies in Broward County. They’ve also designed an intervention study in which at-risk females received individualized motivational counseling to educate them on the dangers of AEPs.
While Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is the best known and has the most severe effects of prenatal alcohol consumption (occurring most often in children born to women who drink heavily throughout their pregnancy), mothers who consume smaller amounts of alcohol during pregnancy can also give birth to children who manifest more subtle abnormalities, such as attention and memory problems, impulsivity, aggression, or social problems. These are typically referred to as fetal alcohol effects. Such problems with AEPs are estimated to be three to four times more prevalent than FAS.
A challenge in preventing AEPs is that a critical period for the onset of certain abnormalities is thought to be close to the time of conception. So it is important to identify women at risk for pregnancy and drinking beyond risk levels before they become pregnant, helping them to reduce their drinking or use contraceptives effectively to avoid becoming pregnant if they are drinking at risk levels.
Thus, women at risk of an AEP will need to be persuaded that (1) they are at risk of becoming pregnant, (2) they are at risk of an alcohol-exposed pregnancy, and (3) they must stop or curtail their drinking before they become pregnant or avoid becoming pregnant to avoid an alcohol-exposed pregnancy. This project will test an innovative way of achieving that goal.
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