Overview
- Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the evidence is not sufficient to state that acetaminophen definitively causes autism, calling existing data only suggestive.
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue alleging acetaminophen use in pregnancy raises the risk of autism and ADHD and citing Kennedy’s prior statements.
- A 2024 JAMA analysis of about 2.5 million Swedish births reported no significant associations between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability.
- Earlier personal-injury cases linking prenatal Tylenol to neurodevelopmental harms were dismissed after a federal judge excluded plaintiffs’ experts as unreliable.
- Kenvue said pregnant women should consult clinicians and agreed there is no definitive causal link, aligning with FDA communications that a causal relationship has not been established.