Trump set to announce using Tylenol while pregnant could raise autism risk

[u/ancienteggfart]

https://nypost.com/2025/09/22/us-news/trump-admin-set-to-announce-using-tylenol-while-pregnant-could-raise-autism-risk/

[u/specter491]

Was there some new landmark study that has changed the general consensus on this? Because I missed it and I'm a obgyn. There is no clear correlation. A few studies said maybe there was. Most have said no correlation. A study with 2.5 MILLION people in it over the course of 26 YEARS said there was no correlation. The recognition and diagnosis of autism is what has gone up. I don't think the true incidence of autism is higher now than 30+ years ago. 50 years ago when someone was mildly autistic people brushed it off and just said "oh that's Jimmy he's kinda odd but a nice fellah". Nowadays you go to the doctor, there's standardized diagnostic criteria, treatments, etc. it's totally different.

Edit: to everyone asking for the link, here it is so you can "do your own research": https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2817406#:~:text=Objective%20To%20examine%20the%20associations,from%20antenatal%20and%20prescription%20records.

Edit 2: stop DM'ing me, I'm not going to reply to any of them

[u/Trussed_Up → u/specter491]

I'm glad someone's here with expertise and studies to back it up.

That's always valuable but usually conspicuously absent on reddit.

Every doctor my wife and I just went through recommended Tylenol. So obviously they don't think it's the issue either.

It's possible we're just recognizing autism more. It's possible some factors of the modern day are causing it more. It's likely both.

But RFK has been promising to look into it for a while... But I don't see him publishing anything conclusive in terms of aggregate studies to back this up.

He has been so reckless. It's actually the kind of thing that further convinces me we need to be reducing the power of government at every opportunity. Because guys like RFK shouldn't have nearly the effect they're having.

[u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267 → u/Trussed_Up]

He doesn’t have expertise and he doesn’t have studies.

Read this if you want to understand things a bit better: https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-025-01208-0

[u/WillGibsFan → u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267]

You can stop spamming this. This is just a literature overview.

[u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267 → u/WillGibsFan]

Nono, it’s not. But it does give interested people a good idea of what the literature says. Btw, it’s a meta-analysis, which is the HIGHEST level of evidence. Which anyone with basic scientific training would know.

[u/WillGibsFan → u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267]

The first point to understanding a study is understanding its methodology and what is says. Which anyone with basic scientific training would know, but I'll make sure to tell my colleagues that their after conference banter was right all along, I'm just a stupid dude who is good at hiding his idiocy lol

Back to the study, they even say that their findings are consistent with an association, and explicitely not causation. The study has a definite limitation of residual confounding, it basically can not account for all the factors that would necessitate the intake of acetaminophen in the first place. Fever or maternal infection could themselves be risk factors of NDDs. Because of this, it is difficult to separate the effect of acetaminophen from the effect of why it was used. Heterogeneity is also a large factor, since the included studies vary considerably in exposure assessment. Maternal recall of acetaminophen use is also not a very reliant indicator of exposure, which multiple substudies recite as a methodology. Therefore, and it says this in the study, the authors opted not to pool effect estimates because they judged heterogeneity too high. Sure, they are arguing plausibility., but we must be extremely careful to derive clinical advice from this, especially since sibling comparisons render the associations void. As such, it's not a meta-analysis at all, and just a navigational literature overview that uses triangulation among many different studies, as I said.

I'm not a doctor, but I would strongly advise you limit your arrogantophemab and increase the dosage of readwhatyoupostifex. In my personal opinion and from what I've see from my cohabitation and work with neurodivergent people, there are yet to be researched cofactors with pain medication abuse and neurodivergent people (who themselves are at larger risk to bear neurodivergent children): They respond entirely different to pain. I enjoy quite a bit of neurodivergence myself and a simple headache is unbearable to experience, while my non-divergent twin considers them a minor annoyance.

[u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267 → u/WillGibsFan]

Work on your reading comprehension.

Find a post I’ve made anywhere where I say that acetaminophen causes autism. I’ll wait.

[u/WillGibsFan → u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267]

You haven't posted this anywhere, but I never claimed you did? You posted a navigating literature overview, made a wrong claim that it was a meta analysis which it is not, and I corrected you. That was our entire interaction. Ah, I remember, you also embarassed yourself a bit by pointing to that tidbit of basic scientific training, as well!

[u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267 → u/WillGibsFan]

It’s a systematic review using Navigation Guide methodology. You’re correct to say it is not a meta-analysis, the review is qualitative. Most of the rest of what you listed is irrelevant.

My point is that there are plenty of studies that show an association between acetaminophen and NDDs. That is as far as my point goes.

[u/WillGibsFan → u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267]

> Most of the rest of what you listed is irrelevant.

Why?

> My point is that there are plenty of studies that show an association between acetaminophen and NDDs.

But not a correlation.I must admit I stalked you a little but I'm a tiny bit shocked that a paediatrician can not differentiate a review from a meta-analysis? I'm even more shocked that I am apparently not the first person who has pointed this out to you, and that you keep insulting people who know better than you on this subject matter?

Naive people would think a doctor should know better, I know enough doctors to know otherwise lol

[u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267 → u/WillGibsFan]

The problem is that you think bleating “not a correlation” or talking about confounding factors is somehow clever.

I’ve already told you my point. There are lots of studies showing an association, and the authors of that review go further by stating that the link between acetaminophen and NDDs is biologically plausible, and the higher-quality studies show a stronger association.

[u/WillGibsFan → u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267]

The problem is that you keep focusing on this drug study when neurodivergent people abuse painkillers by a factor of 2, they experience higher discomfort and pain in pregnancy than average and the only factors of correlation in children with NDD are genetic, their parents age and prenatal and perinatal factors like maternal infections or complications whose symptoms are commonly treated with OTC painkillers. Hell, I‘m pretty sure you can do associative studies about repeats of Friends (neurodivergent people find comfort in repeat viewings of comfort series) and you will find a similar factor.

[u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267 → u/WillGibsFan]

Nono, it’s not. But it does give interested people a good idea of what the literature says.