FACT: Evidence Suggests Link Between Acetaminophen, Autism

Whitehouse.gov ^ | September 22, 2025 | The Whitehouse

[SoConPubbie]

“The Trump Administration does not believe popping more pills is always the answer for better health. There is mounting evidence finding a connection between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism — and that’s why the Administration is courageously issuing this new health guidance. Additionally, the Trump Administration is approving a new treatment option that has been found to improve some autism symptoms. President Trump pledged to address America’s skyrocketing rates of autism, and his team is deploying Gold Standard Science to deliver on this pledge. We will not be deterred in these efforts as we know millions across America are grateful.”
— Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt

Today, President Donald J. Trump joined Administration officials to announce major progress in understanding the root causes of autism, which has exploded in diagnoses over the past two decades, and unveil bold new initiatives to tackle the autism epidemic.

Predictably, the Fake News immediately went into frenzied hyperventilation with their usual smears, distortions, and lies.

FACT: Evidence suggests acetaminophen use in pregnant women, especially late in pregnancy, may cause long-term neurological effects in their children.

• Large-scale cohort studies — including the Nurses’ Health Study II and the Boston Birth Cohort — report associations between in utero exposure and later diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

• Scientists have proposed biological mechanisms linking prenatal acetaminophen exposure to altered brain development and adverse birth outcomes.

• Andrea Baccarelli, M.D., Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: “Colleagues and I recently conducted a rigorous review, funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), of the potential risks of acetaminophen use during pregnancy… We found evidence of an association between exposure to acetaminophen during pregnancy and increased incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders in children.”
  • Harvard University: Using acetaminophen during pregnancy may increase children’s autism and ADHD risk

• Johns Hopkins University: Taking Tylenol during pregnancy associated with elevated risks for autism, ADHD

• Mount Sinai: Mount Sinai Study Supports Evidence That Prenatal Acetaminophen Use May Be Linked to Increased Risk of Autism and ADHD

• In 2021, an international consensus statement highlighted “a call for precautionary action,” recommending that pregnant women “minimize exposure” to acetaminophen “by using the lowest effective dose for the shortest possible time.”

[lastchance]

There are studies suggesting a link going back years. Trump and RFKjr did not just pull this out of their hats.

[kiryandil]

Pregnant liberals film themselves downing Tylenol to spite Trump despite autism warning
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/4342298/posts

[gnarledmaw]

Kostritzer always worked better anyway.

[JennysCool]

As a wise FReeper posted earlier, if RFK Jr. had supported Biden, the media would be hailing this as a brave, long-awaited stand for American health.

[Jonty30]

We should be incorporating as many natural solutions to maintain health.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Acetaminophen is pretty deadly. It will kill lots of animals, and has been used as poison in some cases, such as killing snakes. Humans are uncommon in that they typically just get an analgesic effect. But raise the dose and it is dangerous for humans, too.

[Bob Wills is still the king]

Correlation is not causation. Repeat it as many times as it takes.

[Lurker]

For later.

L

[butterdezillion]

Did you read the part where they have a proposed mechanism by which the acetaminophen causes the neurological effects?

This isn’t just correlation.

[rottweiller_inc]

Acetaminophen – a potent physical painkiller that also reduces empathy for other people’s suffering – blunts physical and social pain by reducing activation in brain areas (i.e. anterior insula and anterior cingulate) thought to be related to emotional awareness and motivation. Some neuroimaging research on positive empathy (i.e., the perception and sharing of positive affect in other people) suggests that the experience of positive empathy also recruits these paralimbic cortical brain areas. We thus hypothesized that acetaminophen may also impair affective processes related to the experience of positive empathy. We tested this hypothesis in a double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment. Specifically, we administered 1,000 mg acetaminophen or a placebo and measured effects on different measures of positive empathy while participants read scenarios about the uplifting experiences of other people.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6455058/

[odawg]

“Correlation is not causation.”

Again, someone thinks they are a genius to make that statement.

Correlation sometimes reveals causation, which is why doctors ask for symptoms. Nerve pain is a correlation that can reveal causation, for example.

[bk1000]

Sounds like the big money vaccine business has been exposed and Big Pharma needs a scapegoat. Enter Tylenol: The reason you can hardly open any product container today.

[Dixie Yooper]

“FACT: Evidence Suggests”... Glen Beck taught me how to find phrases of non-commitment, like this before reading any article that makes claims of facts. I’m not saying I don’t believe the writer, but the title makes it seem as though the writer doesn’t believe themself.

[Paladin2]

But “It is in Bad Köstritz”....

[AppyPappy]

There is a definite link between Tik-Tok use and Autism.

[Socon-Econ]

Correlation is not causation. Repeat it as many times as it takes.
*********
Exactly. Just about anything can be “linked” to something bad and proposed for ban these days. There’s a link between old prople eating carrots and dying (everyone dies), but we don’t ban carrots because we would expect a credible explanation of HOW carrots can kill. It should be the same for Tylenol, vaccines, carbon dioxide, etc.

[Kudsman]

Tylenol has had a troubled past. Remember the Tylenol murders of 1982? Was that ever solved?

[CarolinaReaganFan]

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