By Jennifer Rigby
LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Taking paracetamol, often known as Tylenol within the U.S., throughout being pregnant is protected, a bunch of European researchers have stated, after compiling information in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims of a hyperlink to autism final yr.
In a overview revealed within the British journal The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Ladies’s Well being on Saturday, the workforce stated that they had centered on amassing the best-quality proof to deal with the claims.
“Paracetamol is protected to make use of in being pregnant,” stated lead writer Asma Khalil, professor of obstetrics and maternal foetal medication at Metropolis St George’s, College of London.
“The important thing message is reassurance: When used as advisable, the perfect out there proof doesn’t help a causal hyperlink with autism, ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity dysfunction) or mental incapacity.”
TYLENOL NOT LINKED TO AUTISM OR ADHD
Khalil stated she had been requested in regards to the fashionable ache remedy – also referred to as acetaminophen – by her sufferers after Trump in September informed pregnant girls to not take the drug. On the time, nationwide and worldwide medical teams decried the president’s feedback, saying they weren’t evidence-based.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies stated in response that “many specialists have expressed concern of the usage of acetaminophen throughout being pregnant.”
Current research have yielded conflicting conclusions on whether or not its use throughout being pregnant may create dangers for a creating fetus. A 2024 examine in Sweden discovered no causal hyperlink to issues resembling autism, whereas a 2025 overview by U.S. researchers stated there was a suggestion of a hyperlink. They suggested that pregnant girls ought to proceed to make use of acetaminophen as wanted, on the lowest doable dose and for the shortest doable interval.
Paracetamol/Tylenol is the one ache reliever thought of protected for pregnant girls, and medical doctors already advise them to make use of it with warning. Untreated, these situations could be dangerous for each pregnant girls and their infants.
The European researchers carried out a scientific overview and meta-analysis of current information, discovering 43 research that have been then assessed for high quality and bias utilizing a typical software.
The workforce notably centered on research that checked out youngsters born to the identical mom who took paracetamol/Tylenol throughout one being pregnant however not the opposite. These keep in mind shared genetic elements and household environments that may very well be linked to autism or the opposite situations studied, Khalil stated.
There have been solely three research of this kind, however they have been giant, protecting greater than 260,000 youngsters assessed for autism, and round 335,000 and 405,000 for ADHD and mental disabilities respectively.
ACCOUNTING FOR BIAS
They confirmed no important hyperlink between use of the drug and any of the situations studied. This remained the case when outcomes from all the high-quality research that have been assessed have been pooled, the authors stated.
Khalil stated a lot of the work exhibiting a possible hyperlink, together with the 2025 overview of 46 research cited by Trump officers, was liable to bias or confounding elements that her workforce’s overview had tried to account for.
Grainne McAlonan, professor of Translational Neuroscience at King’s Faculty London, who was not concerned within the analysis, praised the examine, including: “I hope the findings of this examine carry the matter to an in depth.”
(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Enhancing by Kevin Liffey and Franklin Paul)
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