rewrite this title No Evidence of Link Between Tylenol and Autism or ADHD, Study Confirms

At the end of September, when President Trump claimed taking Tylenol while pregnant was associated with an increased risk of autism in children, Dr. Shakila Thangaratinam knew she needed to act.

Acetaminophen, the drug marketed under the name Tylenol, is the first line medication for treating fever in pregnant women, and the alternatives, as the obstetrician and professor at the University of Liverpool knew, can be dangerous. Taking non-steroidal antiinflammatory ibuprofen, marketed under the name Advil, interferes with a developing fetus’s cardiovascular system. Letting a fever rage unchecked, on the other hand, means exposing the fetus to harmful substances produced as the mother fights off her infection.

But healthcare providers, she knew, were likely to be inundated by questions: “A lot of the professional bodies in response to the US announcement said, ‘If you are worried, go talk to your healthcare professional’,” Thangaratinam says.

Recognizing that clinicians would need clear, evidence-based guidance to reassure worried patients, Thangaratinam and her colleagues undertook a comprehensive review of the existing research, which they have now published in the British Medical Journal.

They found that many studies that show a link between acetaminophen and autism and ADHD do not control well for the fact that these diagnoses often travel in families. When, in a handful of better-designed studies, siblings of children with a diagnosis were included, the link weakened substantially.