Research
Association between prenatal alcohol exposure and child socio-emotional development
Appointments
- Director, UCLA Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Clinic
- Professor, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
- Program Director, ABC Child Partial Outpatient Program
- Training Director, Tarjan Center for Developmental Disabilities
Biography
Dr. O’Connor’s current work examines psychosocial and psychiatric risk due to prenatal alcohol exposure. Dr. O’Connor has conducted research on the prevention of alcohol consumption in pregnant women, intervention with children with prenatal alcohol exposure, and medical and allied health education on prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
All of her work has focused on collaborative national initiatives with the long-term goal of developing best practice models to be disseminated on local, state, and national levels.
The overarching emphasis of Dr. O’Connor’s research career has been the development, evaluation, and dissemination of empirically supported assessment and treatment methods for high-risk children.
Publications
- Chaudhary, AA, Srinivasan, C, Maeda, K, DeWitt, AG, Montgomery, C, Rastogi, R et al.. Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy to Aid Ventricular Assist Device Explantation in Infants with Cardiomyopathy and Left Bundle Branch Block. Pediatr Cardiol. 2025; :. doi: 10.1007/s00246-025-04022-0. PubMed PMID:40932626 .
- O'Neill, J, Joshi, S, Alger, JR, Leuchter, AF, Schneider, BN, O'Connor, MJ et al.. Trigeminal nerve stimulation (TNS) for children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: Feasibility study protocol. PLoS One. 2025;20 (8):e0330986. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0330986. PubMed PMID:40880352 PubMed Central PMC12396707.
- Okonkwo, CE, Samad, N, Mohamed, H, O'Connor, MJ, Varghese, S, Al-Marzouqi, AH et al.. Characterization of dietary fiber and soluble carbohydrates in date fruits (Phoenix dactylifera L.). Sci Rep. 2025;15 (1):31616. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-16812-w. PubMed PMID:40866453 PubMed Central PMC12391479.
- Martínez-Romero, M, Horridge, M, Mistry, N, Weyhmiller, A, Yu, JK, Fujimoto, A et al.. A Cloud-Based Platform for Harmonized COVID-19 Data: Design and Implementation of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) Data Hub. JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2025;11 :e72677. doi: 10.2196/72677. PubMed PMID:40834404 PubMed Central PMC12409176.
- Ho, KC, Huffman, KN, O'Connor, MJ, Sparks, P, Bozigar, C, Sterbling, H et al.. Triple-Positive PALB-2 Breast Cancer in a 27-Year-Old Male-to-Female Patient. Eplasty. 2025;25 :e27. . PubMed PMID:40778244 PubMed Central PMC12331020.