On the 11th of April 2024, scientists and researchers have long had concerns about the potentially increased risks of autism and ADHD associated with taking Paracetamol during pregnancy, although it is deemed safe for use during pregnancy by the WHO, FDA, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
In light of this, new findings should provide comfort to pregnant individuals in need of pain relief, as full-dose aspirin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been proven to pose a serious risk to pregnant patients.
A large study found that taking over-the-counter pain relievers containing Paracetamol like Tylenol during pregnancy does not increase the risk of your child developing autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or intellectual disability.
When a pregnancy leads to an adverse outcome, patients often quickly blame themselves and scrutinize every moment during their pregnancy where they could have messed up, explained Dr. Jeffrey Kuller, a specialist in maternal-fetal medicine at Duke University.
„Recall bias is a real thing,“ said Kuller, who was not involved in the study. „There’s this guilt. ‚Did I cause this? Was it the cigarette I smoked, or the drink I had before knowing I was pregnant?'“
When a child suffers from autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability, there are usually many causes in reality, and we do not fully understand why a few percent of children have these neurological developmental disorders.
„I find it highly unlikely that it was the Tylenol someone took during pregnancy that led to these consequences,“ said Kuller. „That’s a huge reach and just a way to make people who already feel bad due to a difficult situation feel even worse.“
The study, conducted by researchers from Drexel University and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, analyzed medical records of nearly 2.5 million children born in Sweden between 1995 and 2019 and was published this week in JAMA.
The results showed a slightly increased risk of autism, ADHD, and intellectual disability when children exposed to Paracetamol during pregnancy were compared to those who were not. However, when the data was expanded to full sibling pairs (born to the same biological parents), no evidence was found linking Tylenol to a higher risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability.
By using a sibling analysis in a large population study like this, all previously unobserved genetic and environmental factors are ironed out. The authors said that the slight association between taking Tylenol during pregnancy and autism, ADHD, and intellectual disability, in the absence of sibling control, is likely passed on by the genetics of neurological developmental disorders and because „those who took Paracetamol during pregnancy reported a higher prevalence of several health issues associated with neurological developmental disorders compared to non-users,“ they wrote.