Study warns of possible link between world's most popular painkiller and autism

The Blaze ^ | August 26, 2025 | Joseph Mackinnon

[E. Pluribus Unum]

There must be some $$ motive.

There was until the patents ran out.

[packagingguy]

Redefinitions and greater awareness account for roughly 25% of the increase according to most peer reviewed journals.

The main problem with acetaminophen is interference with the endocannabinoid system.

Not only is there a correlation but there is a known mechanism by which acetaminophen can alter fetal brain development and lead to autism.

[Wuli]

Those that think, or want to say, there is no link between autism and ANY pharmaceuticals of any kind, keep choosing to say that the only thing that has changed is that the diagnosis for autism and ADHD is granted much more often than in the past - that it merely often went undiagnosed in the past. That is the unified contesting theory that crops up against any study or group of studies suggested a drug link.

[Brian Griffin]

When my son was young, plenty of people – other parents, social workers and medical professionals – seemed to take personal issue with David’s diagnosis. For all sorts of reasons, they didn’t want to believe it.

The simplest retort, I discovered, was to let them spend a couple of minutes with him.

My son was a screamer. He could hit a note of ear-piercing intensity and hold it indefinitely, barely breaking for breath – and no amount of pleading, cuddling or bribing could stop him.

Members of the public have threatened me with violence if I failed to make him stop – or even threatened to hit David. Complete strangers, hearing one of his meltdowns, have banged on our front door and tried to intervene. On one occasion, we were ordered out of the waiting room at Bristol Children’s Hospital and told that, if we wanted to see a doctor, we’d have to wait in the car park because David’s screaming was so unbearably intense.

https://njms.rutgers.edu/autismcenter/rcrc/documents/r_articles/2025/With%20700,000%20cases%20in%20Britain%20alone,%20we%20MUST%20find%20the%20real%20reason%20so%20many%20people%20have%20autism%20-%20like%20my%20son%20David%20CHRIS%20STEVENS.pdf

In the UK, the first cases began to be noticed in the 1950s, when they were classified under ‘childhood schizophrenia’. The first British doctor to use the term ‘autism’ was Mildred Creak, a psychiatrist at Great Ormond Street hospital, in 1963.

In other words, autism was unknown in Britain before the Beatles era.

[Brian Griffin]

WIKI

In 1963, paracetamol was added to the British Pharmacopoeia, and has gained popularity since then as an analgesic agent with few side-effects and little interaction with other pharmaceutical agents.

Concerns about paracetamol’s safety delayed its widespread acceptance until the 1970s, but in the 1980s paracetamol sales exceeded those of aspirin in many countries, including the United Kingdom.

In June 2009, an FDA advisory committee recommended that new restrictions be placed on paracetamol use in the United States to help protect people from the potential toxic effects. The maximum single adult dosage would be decreased from 1000 mg to 650 mg

In January 2011, the FDA asked manufacturers of prescription combination products containing paracetamol to limit its amount to no more than 325 mg per tablet or capsule

Pain after a dental surgery provides a reliable model for the action of analgesics on other kinds of acute pain. For the relief of such pain, paracetamol is inferior to ibuprofen. Full therapeutic doses of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) ibuprofen, naproxen, or diclofenac are clearly more efficacious than the paracetamol/codeine combination which is frequently prescribed for dental pain. The combinations of paracetamol and NSAIDs ibuprofen or diclofenac are promising, possibly offering better pain control than either paracetamol or the NSAID alone. Additionally, the paracetamol/ibuprofen combination may be superior to paracetamol/codeine and ibuprofen/codeine combinations

Paracetamol, in a small-scale meta-analysis was also associated with a 20–30% increase in autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and conduct disorder, with the association being lower in a meta-analysis where a larger demographic was used

Paracetamol is extremely toxic to cats, which lack the necessary UGT1A6 enzyme to detoxify it. Initial symptoms include vomiting, salivation, and discoloration of the tongue and gums. Unlike an overdose in humans, liver damage is rarely the cause of death; instead, methemoglobin formation and the production of Heinz bodies in red blood cells inhibit oxygen transport by the blood, causing asphyxiation (methemoglobinemia and hemolytic anemia).

Paracetamol is lethal to snakes and has been suggested as a chemical control program for the invasive brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) in Guam. Doses of 80 mg are inserted into dead mice that are scattered by helicopter as lethal bait to be consumed by the snakes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracetamol

[Sparticus]

I have never understood why the medical establishment pushes Tylenol as a safer alternative to aspirin. Aspirin has been used for more than 100 years and its precursor, willow bark, has been used for thousands of years. Aspirin is an analgesic, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, antithrombotic, and antiviral. Tylenol is an analgesic that doesn’t even work for some people and has some antipyretic effects. There must be some $$ motive.

Doctors stopped recommending Aspirin because it causes digestive tract bleeding. Sometime severe bleeding. One estimate I read was it contributed to between 7 and 10 thousand deaths per year in the US back when it was a main line drug.

[Brian Griffin]

On September 29, 1982, a “Tylenol scare” began when the first of seven individuals died in the Chicago metropolitan area after ingesting Extra Strength Tylenol that had been deliberately contaminated with cyanide. Within a week, the company pulled 31 million bottles of tablets back from retailers, making it one of the first major product recalls in American history.

Before the poisonings, Tylenol brands held around 35% of the US market for acetaminophen and in the immediate aftermath, fell to 8%. Within a year sales had rebounded to the prior levels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tylenol_(brand)

There would have been a drop in autism for children born around then for much of a year if acetaminophen was the cause of autism.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Good observation.

[PGalt]

Thanks to all posters. Informative thread. Health / life BUMP!

[Mathews]

Holy chit!!!

[Flaming Conservative]

When I was pregnant with my four children, the rule was to prescribe as little as possible to pregnant women, including otc’s. Tylenol is not and never was a drug to be taken for granted. Not to sound like a broken record, but I believe it should be a prescription drug.

[Flaming Conservative]

A company spokesperson for Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, said in a statement to Blaze News, “Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of the people who use our products. We continue to evaluate the science, and this study does not change our view that there is no causal link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and fetal developmental issues.”

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It’s not as if they’re going to say anything else.

[Flaming Conservative]

Carrying a child is painful? I always felt fabulous when I was pregnant, but I guess everyone doesn’t have that experience.

[lee martell]

That’s wonderful that you had a good experience while being pregnant. I honestly don’t know, and will never know first hand, me being a man. I’m sort of repeating what I’ve often heard from women, but as with yourself, each woman will have her own unique experience.

[Bobalu]

Pregnant women should refrain from all meds, I don’t trust any of them for use in pregnancy...better safe than sorry.

I know a bit about such things...

The fiasco caused by a seemingly innocuous anti-nausea drug (thalidomide) resulted in heart rending birth defects :-/

[faucetman]

I’m not pregnant, even though some say that men can get pregnant. I use Aspirin. Bayer usually. Never went in for those other pain relivers.