LONDON: Taking paracetamol, referred to as Tylenol within the US, throughout being pregnant is protected, a gaggle of European researchers have stated, after compiling information in response to President Donald Trump’s claims of a hyperlink to autism final yr.
In a evaluate printed within the British journal The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Girls’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 drugs at Metropolis St George’s, College of London.
“The important thing message is reassurance: When used as really helpful, one of the best 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 concerning the in style ache medicine – also called acetaminophen – by her sufferers after Trump in September instructed pregnant ladies 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 Division of Well being and Human Companies stated in response that “many consultants have expressed concern of the usage of acetaminophen throughout being pregnant.”
Latest research have yielded conflicting conclusions on whether or not its use throughout being pregnant may create dangers for a creating foetus. A 2024 research in Sweden discovered no causal hyperlink to issues akin to autism, whereas a 2025 evaluate by researchers stated there was a suggestion of a hyperlink. They suggested that pregnant ladies ought to proceed to make use of acetaminophen as wanted, on the lowest potential dose and for the shortest potential interval.
Paracetamol/Tylenol is the one ache reliever thought-about protected for pregnant ladies, and docs already advise them to make use of it with warning. Untreated, these circumstances may be dangerous for each pregnant ladies and their infants.
The European researchers carried out a scientific evaluate and meta-analysis of current information, discovering 43 research that had been then assessed for high quality and bias utilizing an ordinary device.
The workforce significantly centered on research that checked out kids born to the identical mom who took paracetamol/Tylenol throughout one being pregnant however not the opposite. These take note of shared genetic components and household environments that may very well be linked to autism or the opposite circumstances studied, Khalil stated.
There have been solely three research of this sort, however they had been massive, overlaying greater than 260,000 kids 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 circumstances studied. This remained the case when outcomes from all the high-quality research that had been assessed had been pooled, the authors stated.
Khalil stated a lot of the work exhibiting a possible hyperlink, together with the2025 evaluate of 46 research cited by Trump officers, was liable to bias or confounding components that her workforce’s evaluate had tried to account for.
Grainne McAlonan, professor of Translational Neuroscience at King’s School London, who was not concerned within the analysis, praised the research, including: “I hope the findings of this research convey the matter to a detailed.”
