Sibling Study Finds No Autism or ADHD Link to Prenatal Acetaminophen Use]

Sibling Study Finds No Autism or ADHD Link to Prenatal Acetaminophen Use] [A large population-based cohort study in Hong Kong found that acetaminophen use during pregnancy was not associated with an increased risk of autism spectrum disorder or attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.] [Sibling-matched analyses showed no elevation in autism risk (adjusted hazard ratio 1.00, 95% confidence interval 0.91-1.11) or ADHD risk (adjusted hazard ratio 1.01, 95% confidence interval 0.93-1.08) among children exposed prenatally to the medication, according to researchers led by Eric Yuk Fai Wan, MD, of the University of Hong Kong.] [These findings remained consistent regardless of timing of exposure, cumulative dosage, or frequency of use, and were published in JAMA Internal Medicine.] [Interestingly, conventional cohort analyses had initially suggested higher risks—17% for autism and 23% for ADHD—but these associations disappeared in sibling-controlled comparisons, suggesting that underlying family factors, not acetaminophen exposure itself, may explain earlier positive results.] [Researchers noted that women who use acetaminophen during pregnancy often have underlying conditions such as fever, infection, or pain, which could independently affect neurodevelopmental outcomes. When the team examined pre-pregnancy acetaminophen use as a negative control, they found similar elevated risks as seen during pregnancy, further supporting the role of confounding maternal characteristics.] [The findings align with four prior sibling studies from Japan, Norway, Sweden, and Taiwan, as well as a recent large Danish study, all of which found no increased autism risk following prenatal acetaminophen exposure.] [The study included 124,333 children diagnosed with autism (mean age 9.3 years) and 97,285 with ADHD (mean age 7.6 years) from an initial cohort of 708,020 mother-child pairs. Over a median follow-up of 10.2 years, 2.8% of children in the autism group and 5.3% in the ADHD group received diagnoses.] [Limitations include reliance on prescription data only, as the study did not capture over-the-counter use, and potential residual confounding despite sibling matching.

Source link