Mother's Acetaminophen Use Linked to Elevated ADHD Risk in Children, Says Study
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The risk of developing ADHD was three times higher among children whose mothers used the pain-relief drug during pregnancy, according to a study published in Nature Mental Health.
Prior research shows that upward of 70% of pregnant women use acetaminophen during pregnancy to control pain or reduce fever. The drug, which is the active ingredient of many pain-relief medications, is one of the few considered safe to take during pregnancy by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The new findings suggest, however, that doctors should reconsider prescribing medications with acetaminophen to mothers during pregnancy, the researchers said.
Most of the prior studies asked women to self-report whether they had taken Tylenol or anything that contained acetaminophen,” said lead author Brennan Baker, a researcher at Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
“This medication was also approved decades ago, and may need reevaluation by the FDA,” said Sathyanarayana, the paper’s senior author. “Acetaminophen was never evaluated for fetal exposures in relations to long-term neurodevelopmental impacts.”
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