In the days since President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a wide-ranging effort to study the causes of autism - including recommending against the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy - doctors have been vocal in their opposition to the President’s stance.
The American Academy of Family Physicians and the National Medical Association and issued statements characterizing the recommendation as “unfounded” and “misleading.”
The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine advises both physicians and patients that acetaminophen is appropriate to use to treat pain and fever during pregnancy, stating, “Despite assertions to the contrary, a thorough review of existing research suggesting a potential link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and an increased risk of autism and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in children has not established a causal relationship.”
Credit: submitted
Credit: submitted
Dr. Roberto Colon, chief medical officer at Premier Health, agrees.
“Acetaminophen is there because the benefits have been established over years as has its safety,” Colon said, adding that the studies used to link the medication to autism are “flawed.”
The problem, he said, is people are trying to find a simple explanation to what is a complex problem, leading to conflicting information coming from what the public sees as credible sources.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday announced label changes for acetaminophen-based medications - including Tylenol and similar products - to include language warning pregnant mothers that its use may be associated with an increase of neurological conditions such as autism.
In the same statement, the FDA acknowledged that no causal relationship has been established and noted that acetaminophen is the only over-the-counter drug approved for use to treat fevers during pregnancy.
“I don’t know that it’s a political issue. A lot of what’s driving this is people seeking what causes autism,” Colon said.
There has been a marked increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder since 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network.
In 2020, 1 in 36, 2.7%, of children were diagnosed. That has climbed to 1 in 31, 3.2%, this year.
The network tracks autism diagnoses among children age 4 to 8 across 16 sites nationwide.
The National Institute of Health on Monday announced the launch of the $50 million Autism Data Science Initiative to explore contributors to the causes and rising prevalence of autism.
Laschell Dauterman, president of the Dayton Autism Society, attributed the increase to better diagnosing both medically and mentally, and a greater understanding of autism itself.
Dauterman echoed the Autism Society of America’s stance that “unfounded claims” about the link between acetaminophen and autism “risk retraumatizing autistic individuals and families, stigmatizing mothers, and diverting attention from what truly matters: ensuring autistic people have access to the supports they need across their lifespan.”
“There needs to be research that’s done scientifically. The biggest emphasis is our families knowing they have done nothing wrong,” Dauterman said.
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