Concern Grows for Tylenol During Pregnancy

Acetaminophen is the active ingredient in Tylenol. It is the first choice pain medication for pregnant women. More than half of all pregnant women in the U.S. use Tylenol. But an important new study has increased the concern over risks to children whose mothers use Tylenol while pregnant. . . .

This large study included 7,796 mothers and examined the effect of using Tylenol at 18 and 32 weeks of pregnancy. The study then used the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to measure behavioural problems in their children when they were seven years old.

Use of acetaminophen by the mother at 18 and 32 weeks was associated with a 42% greater risk of their children having conduct problems and a 31% increased risk of hyperactivity. Acetaminophen use at 32 weeks was also associated with a 29% greater chance of their children suffering from emotional problems and a 46% increase in total difficulties.

Conduct problems are a group of behavioural and emotional problems in children. These children have difficulty following rules and behaving in socially acceptable ways. They may exhibit antisocial, aggressive, dishonest, delinquent, defiant and disruptive behaviours.

The study concluded that acetaminophen use during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy is a direct cause of increased risk of multiple behavioural difficulties.

Acetaminophen crosses the placenta. It could be harming brain development because of its endocrine disrupting properties, toxicity or free radical damage.

This is nowhere near the first study to sound the alarm for Tylenol and pregnancy. The question is, When will people start listening to the alarm?

When a previous large study looked at 64,322 children and mothers, it found that children whose mothers used acetaminophen during pregnancy were at higher risk of being on ADHD medication and of being diagnosed with Hyperkinetic Disorder (HKD), a particularly severe form ADHD characterized by hyperactivity and difficultly concentrating. The association between taking acetaminophen while pregnant and having a child with ADHD or HKD was strongest for women who used acetaminophen during more than one trimester. The more frequently they used it, the greater the risk (JAMA Pediatr 2014;168:313-20).

JAMA Pediatr 2016;doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.1775

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