Overview
- The umbrella review in The BMJ synthesized nine systematic reviews encompassing 40 observational studies on prenatal paracetamol and child neurodevelopment.
- Authors rated confidence in prior associations as low to critically low because of bias, unmeasured confounding and heavy overlap across studies.
- Sibling-controlled and family-adjusted analyses removed or markedly reduced reported links to autism or ADHD, pointing to familial factors as likely drivers.
- The paper was fast-tracked after President Trump urged pregnant women to avoid Tylenol, a claim major medical groups including ACOG have rejected as unsupported.
- Current guidance favors paracetamol for necessary treatment in pregnancy, with researchers calling for better-controlled studies to assess timing and dose.