Research Links Acetaminophen to Autism Risk

Today, President Donald J. Trump joined Administration officials to announce major progress in understanding the root causes of autism, which has exploded in diagnoses over the past two decades, and unveil bold new initiatives to tackle the autism epidemic.

Predictably, the Fake News immediately went into frenzied hyperventilation with their usual smears, distortions, and lies.

FACT: Evidence suggests acetaminophen use in pregnant women, especially late in pregnancy, may cause long-term neurological effects in their children.

• Large-scale cohort studies - including the Nurses' Health Study II and the Boston Birth Cohort - report associations between in utero exposure and later diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
• Scientists have proposed biological mechanisms linking prenatal acetaminophen exposure to altered brain development and adverse birth outcomes.
• Andrea Baccarelli, M.D., Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: "Colleagues and I recently conducted a rigorous review, funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), of the potential risks of acetaminophen use during pregnancy… We found evidence of an association between exposure to acetaminophen during pregnancy and increased incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders in children."
  • Harvard University: Using acetaminophen during pregnancy may increase children's autism and ADHD risk
• Johns Hopkins University: Taking Tylenol during pregnancy associated with elevated risks for autism, ADHD
• Mount Sinai: Mount Sinai Study Supports Evidence That Prenatal Acetaminophen Use May Be Linked to Increased Risk of Autism and ADHD
• In 2021, an international consensus statement highlighted "a call for precautionary action," recommending that pregnant women "minimize exposure" to acetaminophen "by using the lowest effective dose for the shortest possible time."