CDC Awards $1 Million Grant to Nova Southeastern Researchers; Interdisciplinary Approach to Alcohol Exposed Pregnancies in Tri-County Region of South Florida.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A team of Nova Southeastern University (NSU) researchers, who've spent seven years investigating Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancies (AEPs), received a $1 million federal grant to expand their research in 2005 and beyond.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded the NSU group a three-year research grant that will allow them to extend their efforts beyond Broward County and into Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties.

The team includes internationally renowned psychologists Linda Sobell, PhD. and Mark Sobell, PhD., both affiliated with the Guided Self-Change Clinic at NSU's Center for Psychological Studies, and Dr. Kenneth Johnson, 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 most severe effect 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 their pregnancy can also give birth to children who manifest fewer and more subtle abnormalities, such as attention and memory problems, impulsivity, aggression or social problems -- 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 and help them either 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) to avoid an alcohol-exposed pregnancy they must stop or curtail their drinking before they become pregnant or avoid becoming pregnant. This project will test an innovative way of achieving that goal.

For more information, please contact Barbra Gonzalez at NSU, 954-262-5354.