Use of paracetamol in pregnancy and autism: Trump

[MidnightPatrol]

Trump is expected to announce later today that there is a link between paracetamol use in pregnancy, and autism.

As with his approach to covid, scientists have reacted with dismay at this development - a major Swedish study published in 2024 looked at 2.48m births and found no link.

A bit of a worrying development in terms of medical misinformation, pregnant women’s access to pain relief, and those with autism (and their parents).

The irony is there is a link (correlation) between older fathers and autism. As people have said autistic children/adults are worthwhile humans in their own right. So it would still be wrong to say older fathers are "to blame" for their child's autism. But some (narcissistic) men are quite attached to their child reflecting their ego/hung up on their own virility/ability to produce ideal children. So for men like Robert de Niro maybe its partly a need to show to the world its not their genes/age "at fault."

That's not entirely what I meant, but yes.

I took two paracetamols when pregnant and having a migraine. Guess I know the root cause of my son's autism now and can sleep easy, problem solved!

Trump knows the issues going on right now with a) the epstein files and b) the first amendment infringements caused by trying to create a dictatorship type media communications strategy. The republicans are just trying to distract from the main issues with outlandish fake news that no one takes seriously. It's beyond a joke how bad it is here right now, and we are about 6 months of 4 years in.

Not while I was pregnant, but to be honest I didn’t need to.

I would try and lower my temperature naturally by taking a cool bath/shower, using a cold compress, staying hydrated etc but if that didn’t work I would have to take medication I guess - and I would be petrified.

He’s a dangerous moron.

This is a link to a response from UK experts to the media reports and is quite a useful summary

https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-media-reports-that-the-trump-administration-will-link-paracetamol-to-autism/

I took paracetamol every day pretty much with my twin pregnancy in the last few months I was in so much pain and wish I could have taken something stronger. America is such a scary place for women now.

There is already an anti-vax movement in the USA, the paracetamol thing is ridiculous, and I foresee children not getting paracetamol when they're poorly, just in case the catch the 'tism.

"A structured qualitative synthesis [with] evidence grading" CANNOT assign "causality robustly". It just can't. Qualitative synthesis isn't like that. At strongest, qualitative analyses are indicative not definitive, inherently.

Why isn't the headline all about ADHD? Most of the Prada et al. study is about ADHD outcomes. Does nobody worry about ADHD nowadays?

Their conclusions seem to be based on a majority counting method rather than adjusting relative weight of evidence by sample size.

There is sloppiness in the published report (?) There is a statement about incidence risk ratios and ADHD outcomes in table 2 (8 studies) ... Table 2 is supposed to be about ASD not ADHD.

In epidemiology we really want RCTs to start to believe any link is real, and even among RCTs, some RCTs are rubbish.

There's a weird line in the August2025 study saying the Swedish pairs study was flawed because too few pregnant (Swedish) women ever took paracetamol, maybe 7.5%?. Then they say actually worldwide more like 50% women take acetaminophen at least once while pg... so why isn't at least 50% of humanity autistic and also has ADHD? <shrug>

Also completely separately, but I found data recently showing that Swedes, think it was Swedes, consume more OTC painkillers per capita than any other country in Europe. Not sure how to reconcile the competing claims.

I listened to around half of last night's announcement on AFTV's channel on YT and it was just awful, the amount of misinformation Trump spouted. Chat was up in arms about it, too. Trump kept going on about vaccines and how it was too much to give babies so many different vaccines in 'one big needle' and people should give them smaller doses (because scientists haven't figured out the right dosage for the best immune response, right?!!) and should space them out to maybe 4 or 5 doses (says the man with no science background) and maybe wait till they're 12!! I was fuming. He is causing so much damage, there will be more childhood deaths from other diseases as a result of this.

Never mind the Tylenol/Paracetamol nonsense. He quoted the Amish never having autism and that's a myth. Autism existed long before paracetamol. Yes the incidence of autism has risen but it seems RFK Jr and Trump are determined to pin that on vaccines and now a mild painkiller when likely there are multiple causes.

@GentleSheep I don't understand his point about no autism in Amish communities. If he is saying that as an anti vaccination point it's nonsense because many Amish do vaccinate their children. They also aren't anti medicine. 🤔

I think Trump makes it up as he goes along, so he can look good! Sadly many will believe his nonsense.

And so are the adults that lap up his every utterance.

Did you consider drinking bleach during Covid?
I am not trying to get at you, just wondering why an announcement from Trump, that has broadly been discredited across the media, would worry you?

I mean, I would generally be for taking the least amount of painkiller possible, pregnant or not, as you don't know cumulatively what a lot of painkiller can do, but I would not be worried about autism.

Trump surely doesn't have shares in Tylenol or paracetamol.
There's a phrase we use in Scotland for people like him.
He's a fucking heidbanger!!

He'll have been shorting them prior to the announcement.

This goes even beyond the reach of medical disinformation and well into a situation that is directly endangering women.

How many men will now use this "information" to abuse the mothers of their ND children?

Swathes of the US and the world will believe this bullshit and use it against the women who have given birth to ND children.

It's not a stretch to await the first report of women being reported to the police / social services for causing harm to their kids due to taking paracetamol in pregnancy, even if prescribed by a Dr.

This is dystopian, like so much of Trump's presidencies, and it's absolutely terrifying.

No she was Scottish so it was probably Iron Brew.

Irn bru would not have produced that orange monster.

Who tf gets their medical advice from that utter cockwomble. Also mentioned vaccines. So fucking irresponsible.

He's a fu**ing idiot.
Same as that Wakefield guy who was proved wrong with the MRI Jab.

The vaccination thing was always a selling point in the “the Amish don’t have autism” thing, even though it’s not true, and even though it’s quite obvious that a quieter, more structured life with fewer modern day pressures and hustle and bustle is probably more suited to autistic members of the community, people are all too happy to avoid common sense possibilities and prioritise options that have potentially disastrous consequences.

It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s an announcement about ultrasounds at some point. RFK has beaten his shitty drum about those in the past.

I am starting to wonder if the next big amazing thing he wants to talk about might be I don’t know , Roswell or something just anything dramatic to shift attention away from anything else he may be trying to avoid 🤔😂

@DoYaThinkImLexi there is apparently a high level of a specific genetic condition among the Amish (I can't remember exactly what it's called right now) because their gene pool is obviously fairly small.
Autism is also genetic.
The Amish probably have lower rates of autism because it isn't in their genetics as much.
Unfortunately I doubt Trump has considered that.