Tylenol (acetaminophen) is used by millions across the world to relieve pain, but it wasn’t until recently that scientists and health professionals warned that acetaminophen exposure during pregnancy may impact fetal brain development.
Over the past decade, a growing body of scientific research has found that the children of women who took Tylenol (or generic acetaminophen) during pregnancy have an increased risk to develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Johns Hopkins University studied the cord blood samples of children whose mothers took Tylenol during pregnancy.
Their findings, published as “Association of Cord Plasma Biomarkers of In Utero Acetaminophen Exposure With Risk of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Childhood” in JAMA Psychiatry are as follows:
“In this cohort study of 996 mother-infant dyads from the Boston Birth Cohort, cord plasma biomarkers of fetal exposure to acetaminophen were associated with significantly increased risk of childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder.”
Another study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found that children exposed to acetaminophen during pregnancy experienced:
- A 20% higher associated risk of autism (ASD); and
- A 30% higher associated risk of ADHD
You can read further into that study by clicking the link below:
