More Faculty Profiles . . .
It is estimated that 1% of all children born in the United States have fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), a range of symptoms that affects their behavioral, cognitive, and academic functioning. Their disease puts them at high risk for doing poorly in school, having difficulty maintaining healthy relationships with friends and family, and getting in trouble with the law. They are commonly not provided with the services they need because their behaviors are often misunderstood and their disease undiagnosed. Since 1981, Astley, professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the UW, has made major contributions to understanding this multi-faceted disease, including the development of screening and prevention programs as well as research that has resulted in the creation of the 4-Digit Diagnostic Code, a comprehensive tool for diagnosing FASD. She has also studied the structure, chemistry, and function of brains of children with FASD using magnetic resonance imaging and other brain-imaging techniques to see how alcohol damages the brain and to determine if these techniques can be used to help diagnose FASD. Her work has greatly contributed to an increase in the understanding of this condition. Just one way many readers will recognize her work is the placement of notices in restaurants about the risks of consuming alcohol while pregnant.
Astley is the director of the Washington State Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Diagnostic & Prevention Network (FAS DPN), which grew out of the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Clinic at the UW. "The primary goal of the original FASD clinic was to identify women at highest risk for giving birth to infants damaged by prenatal alcohol exposure," says Astley. "Every time we diagnosed a child with FASD, we had the potential of identifying a woman who might benefit from primary prevention intervention. When we opened the clinic, the waiting list grew far beyond our capacity." The Washington State Legislature responded by providing funding to expand this work, thereby creating the FAS DPN, a network of five community clinics located in Seattle, Spokane, Yakima, Everett, and Pullman that are linked through the Center on Human Development and Disability at the UW. Astley notes that the state funding required accurate and reproducible diagnoses across all clinics. "Little did they know that had never been accomplished for FASD," she says. "The FASD 4-Digit Diagnostic Code was our response, and it is now used internationally." Since 1993, FAS DPN has identified the disorder in 2,011 patients in Washington State. The network now trains over 100 interdisciplinary teams in clinics worldwide and is growing by 6 to 10 clinics annually.
Astley is encouraged by the recent evidence of a significant reduction in the prevalence of both maternal drinking during pregnancy and fetal alcohol syndrome in Washington State. "It seems clear that all the effort and taxpayer dollars that have gone into trying to prevent FASD are working. So we need to keep it up. We still have a long way to go."
Faculty Profile
The Best People are in Public Health: Professor Susan Astley
It's unusual nowadays for an epidemiologist to be involved in the full cycle of a disease, from its discovery to developing ways to prevent it, but Fetal Alcohol Syndrome has been Susan Astley's career. The disease was first discovered at the University of Washington (UW) in 1968, and the term "Fetal Alcohol Syndrome" was coined in 1973, but very few people at the time believed it was a "real" disease. In 1981, following lab and clinical research that proved the validity of early findings, the United States Surgeon General issued the first warnings about the risks to children if their mothers consume alcohol during pregnancy. Efforts to prevent, diagnose, and treat the disease then moved into the public health arena. "This is a full-circle public health story that doesn't typically happen this quickly, in the span of one person's career," says Astley.It is estimated that 1% of all children born in the United States have fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), a range of symptoms that affects their behavioral, cognitive, and academic functioning. Their disease puts them at high risk for doing poorly in school, having difficulty maintaining healthy relationships with friends and family, and getting in trouble with the law. They are commonly not provided with the services they need because their behaviors are often misunderstood and their disease undiagnosed. Since 1981, Astley, professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the UW, has made major contributions to understanding this multi-faceted disease, including the development of screening and prevention programs as well as research that has resulted in the creation of the 4-Digit Diagnostic Code, a comprehensive tool for diagnosing FASD. She has also studied the structure, chemistry, and function of brains of children with FASD using magnetic resonance imaging and other brain-imaging techniques to see how alcohol damages the brain and to determine if these techniques can be used to help diagnose FASD. Her work has greatly contributed to an increase in the understanding of this condition. Just one way many readers will recognize her work is the placement of notices in restaurants about the risks of consuming alcohol while pregnant.
Astley is the director of the Washington State Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Diagnostic & Prevention Network (FAS DPN), which grew out of the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Clinic at the UW. "The primary goal of the original FASD clinic was to identify women at highest risk for giving birth to infants damaged by prenatal alcohol exposure," says Astley. "Every time we diagnosed a child with FASD, we had the potential of identifying a woman who might benefit from primary prevention intervention. When we opened the clinic, the waiting list grew far beyond our capacity." The Washington State Legislature responded by providing funding to expand this work, thereby creating the FAS DPN, a network of five community clinics located in Seattle, Spokane, Yakima, Everett, and Pullman that are linked through the Center on Human Development and Disability at the UW. Astley notes that the state funding required accurate and reproducible diagnoses across all clinics. "Little did they know that had never been accomplished for FASD," she says. "The FASD 4-Digit Diagnostic Code was our response, and it is now used internationally." Since 1993, FAS DPN has identified the disorder in 2,011 patients in Washington State. The network now trains over 100 interdisciplinary teams in clinics worldwide and is growing by 6 to 10 clinics annually.
Astley is encouraged by the recent evidence of a significant reduction in the prevalence of both maternal drinking during pregnancy and fetal alcohol syndrome in Washington State. "It seems clear that all the effort and taxpayer dollars that have gone into trying to prevent FASD are working. So we need to keep it up. We still have a long way to go."
