Paracetamol in pregnancy is safe, says research prompted by Trump autism

Taking paracetamol, known as Tylenol in the U.S., during pregnancy is safe, a group of European researchers have said, after compiling data in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims of a link to autism last year.

In a review published in the British journal The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Women’s Health on Saturday, the team said they had focused on amassing the best-quality evidence to address the claims.

“Paracetamol is safe to use in pregnancy,” said lead author Asma Khalil, professor of obstetrics and maternal foetal medicine at City St George’s, University of London.

“The key message is reassurance: When used as recommended, the best available evidence does not support a causal link with autism, ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) or intellectual disability.”

TYLENOL NOT LINKED TO AUTISM OR ADHD

Khalil said she had been asked about the popular pain medication – also known as acetaminophen – by her patients after Trump in September told pregnant women not to take the drug. At the time, national and international medical groups decried the president’s comments, saying they were not evidence-based.

Paracetamol/Tylenol is the only pain reliever considered safe for pregnant women, and doctors already advise them to use the smallest amount for the shortest time to control pain and fever during pregnancy. Untreated, these conditions can be risky for both pregnant women and their babies.

The researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing data, finding 43 studies that were then assessed for quality and bias using a standard tool.

The team particularly focused on studies that looked at children born to the same mother who took paracetamol/Tylenol during one pregnancy but not the other. These take into account shared genetic factors and family environments that could be linked to autism or the other conditions studied, Khalil said.

There were only three studies of this type, but they were large, covering more than 260,000 children assessed for autism, and around 335,000 and 405,000 for ADHD and intellectual disabilities respectively.

ACCOUNTING FOR BIAS

They showed no significant link between use of the drug and any of the conditions studied. This remained the case when results from all of the high-quality studies that were assessed were pooled, the authors said.

Khalil said much of the work showing a potential link, including a review of 46 studies cited by Trump officials, was prone to bias or confounding factors that her team’s review had tried to account for.

Grainne McAlonan, professor of Translational Neuroscience at King’s College London, who was not involved in the research, praised the study, adding: “I hope the findings of this study bring the matter to a close.”