Acetaminophen use in pregnancy not linked to neurodevelopmental disorders, large study finds [Video]

Using acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, during pregnancy was not associated with increased risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability in children, a new study found.The study, published in the journal JAMA on Tuesday, analyzed the prenatal and medical records of about 2.5 million children born in Sweden between 1995 and 2019.A statistical model comparing children exposed to acetaminophen during pregnancy with those not exposed found that there was a marginally increased risk of autism, ADHD and intellectual disability in the exposed group. However, a sibling analysis that looked at the exposure and outcome of full sibling pairs — siblings with the same biological parents — found that there was no evidence of increased risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability associated with acetaminophen use during pregnancy, according to the study led by scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and Drexel University.Sibling analyses are powerful because siblings share …