Wearside professor slams Donald Trump as fearmongering over paracetamol and autism claim
A Wearside professor has slammed Donald Trump after the US president said there is a link between paracetamol use in pregnancy and autism.
Mr Trump said there had been a “meteoric rise” in cases of autism and suggested that Tylenol – which is called paracetamol in the UK – is a potential cause.
He said it should not be taken “during the entire pregnancy”, and also raised unfounded concerns about vaccines.
Mr Trump said the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would be notifying all US doctors with new guidance, adding “ideally, you don’t take it at all, but if you have to, if you can’t tough it out, if there’s a problem, you’re going to end up doing it”.
Mr Trump went on to add “there are certain groups of people that don’t take vaccines and don’t take any pills, that have no autism”, before turning to the US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and asking “Is that a correct statement?”
Dr Monique Botha, associate professor in social and developmental psychology at Durham University has hit out at the president’s statement highlighting the potential impact on families with autistic children questioning their own actions.
She said: “Pain relief for pregnant women is woefully lacking and paracetamol is a much safer pain relief option during pregnancy than basically any other alternative and we need to take pain seriously for women, including whilst pregnant.
“This fearmongering will prevent women from accessing the appropriate care during pregnancy.
“Further, it risks stigmatising families who have autistic children as having brought it on themselves and reinvigorates the long pattern of maternal shame and blame as we’ve seen re-emerge repeatedly over the last 70 years where we try to pay the fault of autism at the mother’s door one way or another.”
Dr Botha also stressed there is no evidence to support Mr Trump’s claim.
She added: “There are many studies which refute a link, but the most important was a Swedish study of 2.4 million births published in 2024 which used actual sibling data and found no relationship between exposure to paracetamol in utero and subsequent autism, ADHD or intellectual disability.
“This suggests no causal effect of paracetamol in autism. There is no robust evidence or convincing studies to suggest there is any causal relationship and any conclusions being drawn to the contrary are often motivated, under-evidenced, and unsupported by the most robust methods to answering this question.
“I am exceptionally confident in saying that no relationship exists.”
Experts say the rise in cases in the US is mainly because of a new definition for the disorder that now includes mild cases on a spectrum and better diagnoses.
In the UK, the NHS website says “paracetamol is the first choice of painkiller if you’re pregnant. It’s commonly taken during pregnancy and does not harm your baby”.