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Tylenol During Pregnancy Linked to Higher Risk of ADHD

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Pregnancy is already a fraught time for expectant moms, as more research shows how quickly the foods that women eat, the air they breathe and the compounds to which they are exposed can traverse the placenta and affect their growing child. Now there’s another thing to add to the growing list of agents — including tobacco from cigarettes, mercury from fish, and alcohol — that may affect their babies’ development. In a study published in JAMA Pediatrics, an international group of researchers led by Dr. Jorn Olsen, at the University of Aarhus, in Denmark, found a strong correlation between acetaminophen (found in common painkillers like Tylenol) use among pregnant women and the rate of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses and prescriptions for ADHD medications in their children. Overall, moms who used the pain reliever to treat things like headaches or to reduce fevers saw a 37% increased risk in their kids receiving an ADHD diagnosis and a 29% increased risk in the chances that their kids needed ADHD medications compared with moms who didn’t use the over-the-counter medication at all. (MORE: Majority of Doctors Do Not Follow Treatment Guidelines for ADHD) Even after the team accounted for factors that could explain the connection, like why the mom needed to take the drug in the first place, the link remained strong, suggesting that there is something specific about the drug, and how it affects fetal development, that might explain the higher risk of behavioral issues. The findings are especially troubling since more than half of the 64,322 women in the study reported using acetaminophen in the three months prior to the survey. The participants included mothers and singleton children born in Denmark between 1996 and 2002 and registered in the Danish National Birth Cohort, so it included a diverse group of mothers from different social and environmental backgrounds. The study also evaluated hyperactivity on three different levels — from symptom reports by mothers or caregivers, hospital diagnoses and prescriptions to treat ADHD. Higher acetaminophen use among mothers was linked to higher rates of

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