Prenatal Acetaminophen Associated with ADHD

Science is never settled.

In the case of pharmaceutical products, tragically, the science is often not even begun until after decades of exposure and harm has been done. Decades during which drug companies and doctors assured consumers a product was safe. In 2014, a study concluded:

“Maternal acetaminophen use during pregnancy is associated with a higher risk for HKDs (hyperkinetic disorders) (HKDs)  and ADHD-like behaviors in children. Because the exposure and outcome are frequent, these results are of public health relevance but further investigations are needed.”

Liew Z, Ritz B, Rebordosa C, Lee P, Olsen J. Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy, Behavioral Problems, and Hyperkinetic Disorders. JAMA Pediatr. 2014;168(4):313–320. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.4914

Were pregnant women informed of this by their OBGYN’s? Have the labels of acetaminophen products been changed to reflect this?

And now a new study, published September 28, 2020, has come to a similar conclusion.

“The findings that ADHD and related brain phenotypes are associated with prenatal acetaminophen exposure measured directly in meconium suggest that the safety of the drug’s use during pregnancy should be reevaluated.”

Baker BH, Lugo-Candelas C, Wu H, et al. Association of Prenatal Acetaminophen Exposure Measured in Meconium With Risk of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Mediated by Frontoparietal Network Brain Connectivity. JAMA Pediatr. Published online September 28, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.3080

It is highly concerning that doctors and drug makers would recommend products to pregnant women, exposing babies at the most critical stages of development, in the absence of appropriate safety science, and without giving women full information so that they could make informed decisions.

Products that contain acetaminophen include, but are not limited to Actifed®, Alka-SeltzerPlus®, Coricidin®, DayQuil®, Dimetapp®, Dristan®, Excedrin®, Mucinex®, NyQuil®, Panadol®, Robitussin®, Saint Joseph®, Aspirin-Free Sinutab®, Sudafed®, Theraflu®, Triaminic®, TYLENOL® Brand Products, Vanquish®, Vicks®

More information on acetaminophen.

By the way, the FDA has not licensed any vaccines for use in pregnancy for protection of the baby because the appropriate safety studies have not yet been done. Yet the CDC recommends both flu and Tdap vaccines “off-label” and says they are “safe and effective.”

As for the safety of exposure to vaccine ingredients multiple times in childhood, the CDC says:

Observing vaccinated children for many years to look for long-term health conditions would not be practical, and withholding an effective vaccine from children while long-term studies are being done wouldn’t be ethical. A more practical approach is to look at health conditions themselves and at the factors that cause them. Scientists are already working to identify risk factors that can lead to conditions like cancer, stroke, heart disease, and autoimmune diseases such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. Thousands of studies have already been done looking at hundreds of potential risk factors. If immunizations were identified as a risk factor in any of these studies, we would know about it. So far, they have not.”

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/tools/parents-guide/parents-guide-part4.html

How can vaccines be identified as a risk factor for a particular health outcome, if the studies for those outcomes did not include vaccination? And if a study did include vaccination, how can risk be determined if the study had no non-vaccinated control group to compare health outcomes against?

Consumer protection and fully informed consent are absent when it comes to drugs and biologicals. Please research deeply before using any product, keeping in mind that often long-term safety science simply may not exist. Explore non-pharmaceutical approaches for your health and medical-needs.