A new review has found no strong evidence that taking paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen or Tylenol, during pregnancy increases the risk of autism or ADHD in children.
The review, published Sunday in the BMJ, comes after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that using Tylenol during pregnancy could cause autism.
Researchers from the University of Liverpool looked at nine major reviews that together analyzed 40 studies on paracetamol use in pregnancy and children's brain development. They found that the overall evidence linking the drug to autism or ADHD was "low to critically low".
Although all nine reviews found at least some possible connection between paracetamol use and these conditions, seven of them cautioned that other factors, like genetics or the mother's health, could explain the results.
Only one review properly accounted for these shared factors. It included two studies involving 2.4 million Swedish children. While initial results suggested slightly higher rates of autism, ADHD, and intellectual disability among children whose mothers took paracetamol, the difference disappeared when comparing siblings - one exposed to the drug and one not. This suggests that genetics or other family-related factors, not paracetamol, are more likely to be responsible for such conditions.
"We have shown that based on current evidence, there is no clear link between women taking paracetamol during pregnancy and a diagnosis of autism or ADHD in their children," concluded lead author Professor Shakila Thangaratinam.
"If there's a family history of autism and ADHD, either in the parents or the siblings, then it is likely that that is the reason a child is diagnosed rather than something the mother took in pregnancy," added Thangaratinam.
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