International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Day is next week, and members of the Health Sciences Center community will spend the day spreading awareness about the disorder – and their facility.
The nationally recognized research center opened last month, but it has been in development for a few years, Dr. Daniel Savage, Neuroscience Department chair, said.
“The center is about improving the health and well-being of the citizens of New Mexico,” Savage said. “One of our biggest challenges is simply awareness of the problem.”
Graduate students from the HSC will help with awareness, when they hand out literature to students in the SUB on Tuesday, said Fernando Valenzuela, professor of neuroscience and the New Mexico Alcohol Research Center’s associate director.
Tables will be set up from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on the bottom level of the SUB, near the Credit Union, he said. The students will also answer questions about the effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy.
The Center is run through the combined efforts of the Pharmacy program, MIND Institute and the Pediatrics, Psychology, Community Medicine and Neurosciences departments, he said.
Research by the Center is funded through various grants sought out by the institution, he said.
One such grant, from the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, awarded the center with $8 million to be distributed over five years, Savage said.
The graduate students who will man the info booths during Tuesday’s event are being trained through a secondary grant created specifically for the training of students doing research on FASD at clinical levels.
Lauren Topper, one such graduate student, said she is positive about the new center and getting information out there.
“I’m really excited about the event, I think it’s important to raise awareness,” she said. “Especially among college-age kids because binge drinking is the worst drinking you can do and it’s also the most typical seen among college students.”
FASD affects 2 to 5 percent of the population, Valenzuela said. In comparison, autism spectrum disorders has a prevalence of 1 percent, yet gets more media attention.
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The CDC estimates that 17 percent of women consume alcohol within the first trimester, a number the center is trying to lower through awareness, he said.
The center has three distinct goals in mind, Savage said. The first goal is to understand how alcohol affects developing brains. The second is to see if a diagnosis can come sooner, and the third is to develop more efficient methods to help affected children, he said.
“There is a need for more information, more services and that kind of support,” Savage said. “We are working to remove the lack of understanding and improve comprehension.”
Matthew Reisen is a freelance writer for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
