1

A 2016 scientific report suggests that taking the painkiller paracetamol (also called acetaminophen in some countries) may cause autism or hyperactivity in children if taken while pregnant. This typical article reports:

Women who take paracetamol in pregnancy are more likely to have autistic or hyperactive children, scientists suspect.

Just one dose could significantly raise the risk of brain-related health problems, they said.

Is this true? Is there any other evidence either way?

Community
  • 1
matt_black
  • 56,186
  • 16
  • 175
  • 373
  • 1
    I'll certainly grant this one more credibility than the usual vaccines-cause-autism bruhaha; the story of [Thalidomide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide) certainly springs to mind... – Shadur Jul 10 '16 at 17:57
  • 2
    @Shadur If it were anything like thalidomide we would surely have noticed its affects in more than 100 years of use. This is a strong piece of evidence against the claim. – matt_black Jul 10 '16 at 18:24
  • I didn't say it had a lot of credibility; just *more* than vaccines-autism blather. Which is a pretty low bar. And that said, 100 years ago I'm not sure 'autism' existed as a diagnosis, or the notion of thinking about what kind of things can and can't cross the placenta barrier and possibly affect fetal development... – Shadur Jul 10 '16 at 18:38
  • 1
    @Dawn "more likely to have" is, at least in newspapers, a causal statement. I don't know whether the science claims this, but the headlines clearly do. "one dose could significantly raise the risk" is clearly a causal claim. And that is certainly how newspaper readers will interpret it. Whether this is reasonable based on the science is a good topic for analysis here. – matt_black Jul 10 '16 at 19:27
  • "recent studies have linked it to everything from asthma to infertility... ADHD..." - if the studies referred to are just correlations not causal, it could be that women who don't take paracetomol are less likely to seek medical help and get a diagnosis? Taking no paracetomol for 9 months has to be pretty rare. Might be enough people with a general mistrust of medicene in that group to create correlations – user56reinstatemonica8 Jul 10 '16 at 23:00
  • is "hyperactive" an actual medical diagnosis? – user5341 Jul 11 '16 at 04:32
  • @user5341 I think that would be a good question for [health.se]. Even if it isn't "diagnosis" though, it can still have an operational definition and instances of it counted in a particular study. –  Jul 11 '16 at 04:56
  • The link seems to be tenuous, and there's no real proof of causality. It's as possible that women who are in pain more often are more likely to have children who are autistic. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/06/beware-the-tylenol-autism-freak-out.html?via=desktop&source=facebook – Sean Duggan Jul 12 '16 at 16:32
  • @SeanDuggan I agree: the link seems tenuous, but it has bee widely reported. That's why it deserves a good refutation here. – matt_black Jul 12 '16 at 18:58
  • @matt_black or a good showing of support.. However other experts have analyzed this work. It might be a refutation. It might not be –  Jul 13 '16 at 06:24

0 Answers0