Israeli research links acetaminophen during pregnancy to autism, ADHD |

An extensive Israeli study has found that mothers who continuously
use a popular pain relief medication during their pregnancy face an
increased risk of the newborn suffering from autism or ADHD.


The meta-analysis by a team of researchers from the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, published Tuesday in the American Journal of
Epidemiology, showed that prolonged exposure to acetaminophen — also
known as paracetamol — during pregnancy is associated with a 30 percent
increase in relative risk for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) and a 20% increase in relative risk for autistic spectrum
disorder (ASD), compared with those who did not take acetaminophen
during pregnancy.

Autism genes are selectively targeted by environmental pollutants including pesticides, heavy metals, bisphenol A, phthalates and many others in food, cosmetics or household products

The increasing incidence of autism suggests a major environmental influence. Epidemiology has implicated many candidates and genetics many susceptibility genes. Gene/environment interactions in autism were analysed using 206 autism susceptibility genes (ASG's) from the Autworks database to interrogate ∼1 million chemical/gene interactions in the comparative toxicogenomics database. Any bias towards ASG's was statistically determined for each chemical. Many suspect compounds identified in epidemiology, including tetrachlorodibenzodioxin, pesticides, particulate matter, benzo(a)pyrene, heavy metals, valproate, acetaminophen, SSRI's, cocaine, bisphenol A, phthalates, polyhalogenated biphenyls, flame retardants, diesel constituents, terbutaline and oxytocin, inter alia showed a significant degree of bias towards ASG's, as did relevant endogenous agents (retinoids, sex steroids, thyroxine, melatonin, folate, dopamine, serotonin). Numerous other suspected endocrine disruptors (over 100) selectively targeted ASG's including paraquat, atrazine and other pesticides not yet studied in autism and many compounds used in food, cosmetics or household products, including tretinoin, soy phytoestrogens, aspartame, titanium dioxide and sodium fluoride. Autism polymorphisms influence the sensitivity to some of these chemicals and these same genes play an important role in barrier function and control of respiratory cilia sweeping particulate matter from the airways. Pesticides, heavy metals and pollutants also disrupt barrier and/or ciliary function, which is regulated by sex steroids and by bitter/sweet taste receptors. Further epidemiological studies and neurodevelopmental and behavioural research is warranted to determine the relevance of a large number of suspect candidates whose addition to the environment, household, food and cosmetics might be fuelling the autism epidemic in a gene-dependent manner.

Is acetaminophen in pregnancy linked to behavioral problems in offspring? - Medical News Today

The findings indicate that children born to women who used of acetaminophen (paracetamol) at 18 and 32 weeks of pregnancy were more likely to have behavioral problems and to be hyperactive. Those whose mothers used acetaminophen at 32 weeks of pregnancy were more likely to have emotional and other challenges.


Pubmed acetaminophen + autism or  acetaminophen + ADHD

Paracetamol in pregnancy may lower testosterone in unborn boys

The University of Edinburgh study tested the effect of paracetamol on
testosterone production in mice that carried grafts of human testicular
tissue. These grafts have been shown to mimic how the developing testes
grow and function during pregnancy.
Scientists gave the mice a typical daily dose of paracetamol - over a
period of either 24 hours or seven days. They measured the amount of
testosterone produced by the human tissue an hour after the final dose
of paracetamol.
They found there was no effect on testosterone production following
24 hours of paracetamol treatment. After seven days of exposure,
however, the amount of testosterone was reduced by 45 per cent.
The team - from the University's MRC Centre for Reproductive Health -
say further research is required to establish the mechanism by which
paracetamol might have this effect.


The study is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
It is funded by the Wellcome Trust, the British Society of Paediatric
Endocrinology and Diabetes and the Medical Research Council.


Dr Rod Mitchell, a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Research
Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, said: "This study adds to
existing evidence that prolonged use of paracetamol in pregnancy may increase the risk of reproductive disorders in male babies.

Prenatal paracetamol exposure and child neurodevelopment: a sibling-controlled cohort study

Background Paracetamol is used extensively during pregnancy, but studies regarding the potential neurodevelopmental sequelae of foetal paracetamol exposure are lacking.

Method Between 1999 and 2008 all pregnant Norwegian women were eligible for recruitment into the prospective Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. The mothers were asked to report on their use of paracetamol at gestational weeks 17 and 30 and at 6 months postpartum. We used data on 48 631 children whose mothers returned the 3-year follow-up questionnaire by May 2011. Within this sample were 2919 same-sex sibling pairs who were used to adjust for familial and genetic factors. We modelled psychomotor development (communication, fine and gross motor development), externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems, and temperament (emotionality, activity, sociability and shyness) based on prenatal paracetamol exposure using generalized linear regression, adjusting for a number of factors, including febrile illness, infections and co-medication use during pregnancy.

Results The sibling-control analysis revealed that children exposed to prenatal paracetamol for more than 28 days had poorer gross motor development [β 0.24, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.12–0.51], communication (β 0.20, 95% CI 0.01–0.39), externalizing behaviour (β 0.28, 95% CI 0.15–0.42), internalizing behaviour (β 0.14, 95% CI 0.01–0.28), and higher activity levels (β 0.24, 95% CI 0.11–0.38). Children exposed prenatally to short-term use of paracetamol (1–27 days) also had poorer gross motor outcomes (β 0.10, 95% CI 0.02–0.19), but the effects were smaller than with long-term use. Ibuprofen exposure was not associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Conclusion Children exposed to long-term use of paracetamol during pregnancy had substantially adverse developmental outcomes at 3 years of age.