Reference News Network September 24 report - According to AFP on September 22, US President Donald Trump strongly advised pregnant women to avoid acetaminophen (paracetamol) on the 22nd, claiming that the drug is "possibly related to a significant increase in the risk of autism." This statement was immediately criticized by experts in the field of neurodevelopmental disorders.

Trump made the statement during a White House press conference on autism. Autism is one of his key issues of concern.

Trump also said: "Don't take it." He mentioned that autism is one of his major concerns.

Trump further said: "There are rumors that I don't know if they're true, but Cuba doesn't have acetaminophen because they can't afford it. As a result, almost no one in Cuba has autism."

Paracetamol is the main ingredient in many common painkillers.

Currently, this drug is still recommended for pregnant women to relieve pain or fever, as other drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen (especially in late pregnancy) are contraindicated.

At the beginning of September, dozens of American autism research experts had warned in a report in the Wall Street Journal about this hypothesis: linking acetaminophen to autism is "extremely irresponsible and potentially dangerous." They emphasized that "the scientific conclusions are much more complex and uncertain," and pointed out that such statements only create "confusion and panic."

David Mandell, professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, stated that whether taking acetaminophen during pregnancy affects children's neurological development is not a new topic.

Extensive research has been conducted on this topic, but the results are contradictory.

A large-scale study published in the prestigious medical journal JAMA in 2024 involving over 2 million children ruled out this risk. However, an analysis of previous studies this summer came to the opposite conclusion, although the authors also emphasized that further research is needed to confirm any potential association.

Mandell pointed out that one of the major challenges for researchers is: it is difficult to distinguish the effects of the drug itself from the effects of the reason for taking the drug.

"We know that fever... itself may increase the risk of delayed neurological development and disorders," he said, "therefore, when determining which factor leads to an increased risk of autism, we must be particularly cautious."

The Trump administration also strongly promoted folic acid (a derivative of folic acid) as a potential therapy for certain types of autism on the 22nd; experts believe this direction is promising, but still needs further verification.

Autism is a complex disorder with a wide range of symptoms, and its causes have been studied for decades. Although genetic factors are important, environmental factors are also considered to play a role, such as neuroinflammation, or the use of certain medications during pregnancy (such as the antiepileptic drug valproic acid).

US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised to find out the root cause of what he called the "autism epidemic" by the end of the month. Given the complexity of the issue, and the fact that the secretary himself has previously spread theories that vaccines cause autism, which have been discredited, this statement has caused great concern among the expert community. (Translation/Pan Geping)

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7553575488606732810/

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