Study Finds No Link Between Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy And Autism, ADHD Risk

Children exposed to acetaminophen in the womb do not appear to have an increased risk of autism or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a studypublished today inJAMA. While a broad analysis of Swedish families found a slightly increased rate of these disorders in children exposed to acetaminophen in the womb, the researchers found no evidence acetaminophen was responsible when factoring in genetic or family influence.“Results of this study indicate that the association between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders is a noncausal association.,” wrote Viktor H. Ahlqvist, Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institutet and colleagues. “Results suggested that there was not one single ‘smoki ng gun’ confounder, but rather that multiple … health and sociodemographic characteristics each explained at least part of the apparent association.”Ahlqvist and colleagues first examined developmental outcomes of nearly 2.5 million non-twin children born in Sweden between July 1, 1995, and December 31, 2019. The researchers followed the children until the end of 2021 and identified all diagnoses of autism, ADHD, and intellectual disability. Overall, 7.62% of these children were diagnosed with at least one of these neurodevelopmental disorders. The researchers found that children whose mothers used acetaminophen at some point during pregnancy had a 5% increased risk of an autism or intellectual disability diagnosis and a 7% increased ris...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: acetaminophen ADHD attention deficit hyperactivity disorder autism JAMA pregnancy risk factor Sweden Tylenol Source Type: research