In a White House event on Monday long on confident statements but short on scientific evidence, President Trump and several of his administration’s public health officials asserted that using Tylenol during pregnancy could lead to autism, an unproven claim.
The president, almost yelling at times, exhorted women not to take Tylenol during pregnancy, telling them to “tough it out” through pain and fevers — which can themselves threaten pregnant patients and fetuses — unless their fevers were extreme or their illnesses so severe that they couldn’t stand it. He linked rising rates of autism diagnoses to acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. Mr. Trump also stressed that he believed parents should not give their babies Tylenol.
Experts in obstetrics, pediatrics and autism expressed alarm at the claims from Mr. Trump, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and leaders of the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.
While a number of studies have shown a possible association between Tylenol and autism, others have not, and none have proved causation. Medical experts, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, say that Tylenol is safe to take during pregnancy in consultation with a doctor.
What does research say about Tylenol and autism?
No connection has been proven. The findings of a large body of research are inconclusive.
A paper published last month, based on a review of 46 previous studies, found an association between neurodevelopmental disorders and acetaminophen use during pregnancy in more than half of the studies. But the lead author emphasized that the work did not show acetaminophen use caused these disorders — a crucial distinction that Mr. Trump and other officials at Monday’s event elided.
The studies in question cannot prove causation because they were observational, meaning pregnant women were not randomly assigned to use or not use acetaminophen. Rather, researchers looked at whether women had used acetaminophen during pregnancy, and then looked at their children’s neurodevelopmental outcomes.
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