3 hours ago
1
The UK’s medicines regulator has said there is “no evidence” to support Donald Trump’s claim that taking paracetamol while pregnant can cause autism in children. The US president said on Monday that taking the drug, sold under the brand name Tylenol, was “no good” and pregnant women should “fight like hell” to only use it in extreme cases. Medical experts have strongly rejected his statements, arguing that it is not supported by research.
Dr Alison Cave, chief safety officer at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, said: "Patient safety is our top priority. There is no evidence that taking paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism in children. Paracetamol remains the recommended pain relief option for pregnant women when used as directed. Pregnant women should continue to follow existing NHS guidance and speak to their healthcare professional if they have questions about any medication during pregnancy.“
Dr Cave warned that untreated pain and fever in pregnant women “can pose risks to the unborn baby, so it is important to manage these symptoms with the recommended treatment”.
She added: “Our advice on medicines in pregnancy is based on rigorous assessment of the best available scientific evidence. Any new evidence that could affect our recommendations would be carefully evaluated by our independent scientific experts.
"We continuously monitor the safety of all medicines, including those used during pregnancy, through robust monitoring and surveillance. We encourage anyone to report any suspected side effects to us via the Yellow Card scheme."
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “I trust doctors over President Trump, frankly, on this”. He told ITV’s Lorraine: ”I’ve just got to be really clear about this: there is no evidence to link the use of paracetamol by pregnant women to autism in their children. None.”
Tylenol’s manufacturer, Kenvue, had also issued a statement saying the science clearly shows that taking paracetamol does not cause autism.
Mr Trump's announcement comes after US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr promised earlier this year to determine the cause of autism, despite experts saying there is no single cause and decades of science points to a range of genetic and environmental factors.
Appearing along side Mr Trump, Mr Kennedy Jr said he would issue a physicians notice about what he described as the potential risk of taking Tylenol during pregnancy.
British experts have also strongly rejected the claims. Professor Laurie Tomlinson, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, has studied the health risks of numerous medications for the past 15 years.
She said: “I am confident that the best available evidence shows us paracetamol is safe to take during pregnancy within the recommended limits and does not increase the risk of children being born with autism. These claims seem to ignore numerous factors, including why paracetamol was taken in the first place.
“For example, women with hypermobility are more likely to have autistic children (since the two conditions are linked) and so may have needed to take paracetamol for joint pain during pregnancy but it is the shared genetic causes rather than the drug that means that the child is more likely to be autistic.”
Prof Tomlinson added: “Alongside my research experience, I am also the mother of two autistic children and I know that this announcement will cause distress and guilt to many parents, who often ask themselves whether they are to blame.
“I urge those parents to focus on the countless number of reputable sources of evidence published to date that do not show a link between paracetamol and autism, and to seek medical advice from their own GP or health practitioner.”
Dr Jeffrey Glennon, assistant professor at University College Dublin School of Medicine/Conway Institute, said Mr Trump’s claims were “incorrect”.
He added: "A recent large scale landmark study by both Swedish and U.S. researchers in 186,000 people demonstrated no link between paracetamol use by expectant mothers and autism spectrum traits in their offspring.
“This study, led by Prof. Gardner and Prof. Lee was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Health and published in 2024. What makes this study convincing is the researchers examined registry data for 2.4 million Swedish-born children between 1995 and 2019.
“They then combined the prescription register and reports to midwives during pregnancy to study the nearly 186,000 children whose mothers were treated with paracetamol during pregnancy. These children were compared with their own brothers and sisters in cases where the mother had not been treated with paracetamol when she was pregnant with them.
“They concluded that there was no evidence of a link between maternal paracetamol use and autistic traits."
Dr Steven Kapp, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Portsmouth, and a member of the Coalition of Autism Scientists, said: “There is a long history of a cottage industry of false causes and ‘treatments’ offered for autism that prey on desperate people's hopes and fears. It is sad that unqualified demagogues continue to disregard science.”
English (US) · 