RFK, Jr.’s report to suggest Tylenol use during pregnancy has links to autism. What does the science say?

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Credit: Creative Commons

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has in recent months teased a September announcement in which he would identify the cause of autism. [S]ome close to the Trump administration and one major news outlet suggested Kennedy could point in the direction of acetaminophen use during pregnancy as one possible link.

Doctors and researchers have spent decades studying acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, and have broadly found it to be the safest option for pain relief during pregnancy. The bulk of the scientific literature suggests no link between autism and exposure to acetaminophen in the womb.

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Dr. Joshua Gordon, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at Columbia University, said … there is some controversy in the field, but “it seems clear to me that the risk is low to non-existent.”

He added that “RFK Jr. and those he supports have a long history of ignoring very large scale, well-controlled studies…, promoting findings from much smaller studies and those with suspect methods.”

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