Trump claim linking paracetamol during pregnancy to autism rubbished by major new study

Kennedy, who has previously been accused of spreading vaccine misinformation and pushed a discredited theory that routine childhood vaccines were linked to autism, said the department would encourage clinicians to prescribe the lowest effective dose of the pain relief drug.

UK scientists hit back at the “fearmongering” claims and health secretary Wes Streeting stressed to not “pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine.”

Now a review of the medical evidence published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women’s Health journal, has found there is no strong evidence that paracetamol use during pregnancy increases the risk of autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or any intellectual disability among children.

“Autism diagnoses have surged by 787 per cent in the UK since 1998, which naturally raises questions around what’s behind this trend. It’s simply bad science to automatically assume that this is due to autism becoming much more prevalent. It’s even worse to attribute it to a simple cause like taking paracetamol during pregnancy without foundation,” Dr Lisa Williams, founder and clinical director, The Autism Service, who was not involved in the study, told the Independent.

For the study, researchers reviewed 43 papers including one that used sibling data. The Swedish study of 2.4 million births published in 2024 found no relationship between exposure to paracetamol in utero and subsequent autism.

Another example is a Japanese cohort study, which suggested there was a minor risk of ADHD and autism, but further analysis indicated this was due to “confounding and misclassification” and may have been prone to bias.

Study authors said previously reported associations between paracetamol during pregnancy and autism may be due to other maternal factors, such as underlying pain, discomfort, fever, or genetic predisposition, rather than any direct effect from the paracetamol.

Researchers said avoiding paracetamol might expose mothers and foetuses to the risks associated with untreated pain and fever, such as miscarriage, preterm birth or congenital defects.

Experts have praised the “strong and reliable” study for highlighting the inaccurate claims made by the US administration.

"Expectant mothers do not need the stress of questioning whether medicine most commonly used for a headache could have far reaching effects on their child’s health,” Grainne McAlonan, professor of translational neuroscience at King's College London, said. “While the impact of last year’s announcement has been extensive, I hope the findings of this study bring the matter to a close.”

Parents of disabled children may be more likely to take paracetamol, according to Dr Steven Kapp, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Portsmouth. He explained this could be due to pains from parenting stress or their own chronic conditions – which neurodivergent parents are more likely to have.

“As a neurodivergent researcher and advocate, I think an implication is that society needs to stop going down rabbit holes of seeking false prevention of developmental disabilities. Instead, we should focus more on making the world a better place for disabled people,” he said.

Dr Monique Botha, associate professor in social and developmental psychology at Durham University, said: “When this higher-quality evidence is examined, the findings are clear: there is no evidence that using paracetamol as recommended during pregnancy increases the risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability.”