No Credible Tie Between Tylenol Use and Autism/adhd Study Finds

yeah. We can see how controversial this is by looking at the comment count

It's ok, maybe Tylenol can rebrand as paracetemol and leave the legacy of acetaminophen behind them.

I just assumed it was stock manipulation (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx25l92q9xgo)

And the company cannot sue for libel as SCOTUS has already stated that POTUS is immune as long it was part of official acts. The thing I don't know enough about is if they meant for suing in the courts while still allowing for Congress the ability granted them by the Constitution to impeach/convict/remove. That was Trump's position as the only way to hold POTUS accountable, which goes to explain why he is so worried about keeping control of both chambers. What happens after his term doesn't matter has he has immunity from SCOTUS if Congress does nothing.

The underlying issue is that there is an unsatisfying risk reward ratio.

Taking Tylenol doesn’t have a huge benefit, but severe autism is a catastrophe.

Even though the causation is not proven, correlation might give you pause to have such a catastrophic result.

There are a lot of people who are not parents discussing this, but as a parent, I don’t think I would let my wife take tylenol during pregnancy.

5? That number is far too low - even here on HN we have people genuinely commenting that vaccines directly cause autism.

Speaking of "too late... damage done" - isn't it strange how Kimberly-Clark bought Kenvue (Tylenol) right after RFK Jr and Trump started saying Tylenol causes autism, hurting sales and dropping stock value? And now RFK Jr is saying there's no link?

I can't wait to find out how many tens of millions of Trump and Ivanka and Baron Coin they bought, and for nothing to be ever done about it.

I hope we're so lucky that it's only 5 years. Wakefield's "study" was published in 1998 and it's still widely believed.

There are concerns that the increase in autism diagnoses is because something is causing more children to be affected by the condition. Is this accurate?

  Changes in the diagnostic criteria and increased screening at wellness visits seem to be the main contributors. There have been a few studies over the past two years that have looked at a specific subgroup of individuals on the spectrum who frequently need 24-hour-a-day support and care from a caregiver, often have very limited verbal communication skills, or have intellectual disability that co-occurs with autism. 

  The data has shown that rates of autism for that subgroup have increased minimally, if at all, over the past nearly 10 years. 

~ Is There an Autism Epidemic?, John Hopkins, Bloomberg School of Public Health: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/is-there-an-autism-epidemi...

Autism diagnoses are on the rise – but autism itself may not be

  Autism is better known and diagnosed than ever before, leading to misconceptions that cases are skyrocketing.

~ BBC, 10th May, 2025: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250509-why-autism-diagn...

> I think the general advice to pregnant women is to generally avoid most/all medications as much as possible as a just in case thing.

I really don’t think that’s true. e.g. having a fever for a prolonged period could endanger the woman and/or the baby and taking Tylenol would be a risk reducer by comparison.

> There are a lot of things that it could be that changed to bring more autism in society.

Also quite possible that there isn’t any more autism in society, just that greater awareness has led to increased diagnoses.

No, they shouldn't avoid medication as much as possible, because leading them to think they should ignore symptoms is dangerous just like the taking the wrong medication. They should consult their doctor about when during pregnancy acetaminophen is appropriate. And as long as they've chosen a real doctor who doesn't give advice based on culture wars, they'll be fine.

IMO, that general advice is wrong.

Fevers are known to be dangerous to a fetus, especially in the first trimester. Embracing a known danger to avoid an unknown potential one seems crazy.

In other words, there’s no evidence of a link.

I prefer that study. The only difference is how they treated the Swedish study. The Harvard study gave it low quality since they didn’t ask the mothers if they took the drug. And their values of 7.5% were significant of the 50% every other study said.

NAC causes cancer in humans.