Hey look, it’s big pharma not properly testing stuff and lobbying politicians to sell their shit over the counter.
Monday August 25, 2025
Drug has link to autism
The world’s most popular painkiller may put children at risk of ADID and autism, experts have warned.
Paracetamol is a common medication used by millions of youngsters and adults to treat mild symptoms from colds to headaches.
But new data has claimed the painkiller could be linked to autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Experts at Mount Sinai and Harvard’s School of Public Health conducted their research using more than 100,000 people and 46 case studies. The team reviewed which stage of pregnancy mothers took paracetamol and compared it to their subsequent medical records.
Their findings concluded expectant mothers should take the painkiller “for the shortest” period possible, and at the “lowest effective dose”
“Ultimately, the obtained scores suggest strong evidence of a likely relationship between prenatal acetaminophen use and increased risk of ADHD in children,” scientists wrote in the journal Environmental Health. "This includes high-quality studies that provide very strong evidence of an association and studies that provide strong evidence of an association.
ETA: Link to journal mentioned in article: https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-025-01208-0
Edit: holy cow with the downvotes. I took the picture today with my phone camera. The ones bitching about the source: it’s fcking Harvard. The ones claiming later pregnancies have higher risk clearly don’t need to provide any sources for their claims. And together with [email protected] you can enjoy one less subscriber.
It’s not a linear scale from “mild*” to “debilitating”. A spectrum just groups closely-related things (e.g. consider the visible light spectrum; red is not more of a colour than blue). The whole point of it was to highlight that autism is a complex condition that has a wide range of presentations.
There is also a good argument that so-called “severe” autism (learning disabilities, etc.) are conditions that are simply more likely to be comorbid with autism (just like many other medical conditions) and are not an intrinsic part of autism itself.
*mild really should just be considered high-masking and indicates that those people have learnt how to “fit in” to a neurotypical society.