Trump links autism with Tylenol ingredients paracetamol during pregnancy

This photo illustration is displayed on September 22, 2025 in San Anselmo, California, Tylenol Caplets.

Justin Sullivan | Getty pictures

On Monday, the Trump administration provided an unproven connection between autism and pregnant use of paracetamol, the active ingredient in one of the most common over-the-counter pain relievers in the world, the active ingredient. KenvueTylenol.

President Donald Trump said that the Food and Drug Administration would issue a doctor’s termination of the risk of patients who use acetamol during pregnancy unless they have fever. The agency will also start the process of changing the security label for paracetamol on Tylenol and similar products.

The movements fight with a large part of scientific literature, which indicates that there is no causal connection between autism and exposure to paracetamol in the womb.

Many over -the -counter drugs contain paracetamol, but Tylenol is generally considered the safest treatment that must be used during pregnancy to relieve pain and fever as long as the patients use the recommended dose.

“Taking Tylenol is not good,” said Trump during a press conference on Monday. “They strongly recommend that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy if it is not medically necessary. For example, this is with extremely high fever that they feel that they cannot exhaust it, they cannot do it.”

The Department of Health and Human Services will encourage clinicians to “make their best judgment” about the use of paracetamol during pregnancy by “prescribing the lowest effective dose with the shortest necessary duration, and only if the treatment is necessary,” said the secretary of the department, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., during the press conference.

HHS will start a nationwide campaign to inform the patients about the alleged risk, said Kennedy.

In an explanation on Monday, Kenvue said that it believes in “independent, well -founded science” that taking acetamol does not cause autism, and “we do not agree with a different proposal and are deep with the health risk that represents this for the expectation of mothers”. Without the drug as an option, women may have to experience diseases such as fever that are potentially harmful for both them and their babies or use riskier alternatives, said Kenvue.

Untreated fever and pain during pregnancy can form risks for both mother and children such as miscarriage, birth defects and high blood pressure, according to the company for maternal fetal medicine.

The FDA Commissioner Marty Makary suggested that the treatment of a fever “can extend the duration of the disease in a young child”, citing a study by John’s Hopkins, without further details.

“Perhaps this is because fever is the natural way of a body to free an infection,” said Makary.

Trump, several times during the briefing, said “There is no disadvantage” not to take a Tylenol during pregnancy or in the early life of a baby.

The FDA deletes less well -known medication

Also on Monday, the FDA approved a less well -known medication, LeucoForin as the treatment of autism, said Dr. Mehmet OZ, administrator for Medicare & Medicaid services, during the briefing.

The agency in particular updates Leukorin’s label for brain sequence deficiency, which HHS has associated with autism. The change enables children with autism to be treated with the medication with continued use when children show language, social or adaptive profits according to an HHS publication.

HHS, however, said that Leukorin is not a remedy for autism and may only lead to improvements in the language deficits for a subgroup of children with the disorder. State Medicaid programs can cover the drug for autism after the label update. The NIH will also start experiments to confirm the effects of Leukorin on the disorder, including studies on the security of medicine.

It should be noted that Leukorin is not a remedy for ASD and can only lead to improvements in the language deficits for a subgroup of children with ASD. In addition, this treatment must be administered under close medical supervision and in conjunction with other non-pharmacological approaches for children with ASD (e.g. behavioral therapy).

Leukorin is a form of folic acid, a B vitamin that is typically prescribed to counteract the side effects of the medication, including chemotherapy, and to treat vitamin B9 deficiency. Some early, placebo-controlled clinical studies have shown that oral leukorin, also known as folic acid, has the potential to improve symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder.

The Food and Drug Administration on the early Monday published a message that it approved a version of Leucovorin that was previously made by GSK, the Wall Street Journal reported. But on Monday afternoon, the Federal Register’s website announced that it had received an “agency letter” that was asked to withdraw the message.

In a statement, a GSK spokesman said that he did not intend to market leukvorin. The company marketed the drug from 1983 to 1999 under the name Wellcvorin, but the product was withdrawn from the market and has been available as generic since then. The spokesman said that Label changes to Wellcortin will help generics add this new approval for autism to their labeling on the market.

Acetamineophs is the latest widespread and accepted treatment that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has undermined the head of the federal health authorities at the head of the Health and Human Services department, regulating drugs and other therapies. Kennedy has also taken steps to change the vaccine guideline in the USA and intensify incorrect claims about secure and effective recordings that MRNA technology use.

Kennedy has made autism a main focus of HHS and in April promises that the agency “will know what the autism epidemic has caused” and eliminates the exposure. He also said this month that the agency initiated a “massive test and research effort” in which hundreds of scientists worldwide are involved in the cause.

Much of the scientific community agreed that autism results from a complex mix of genetic and environmental factors, which makes it unlikely that increasing rates of the disorder can be attributed to a single cause.

Kennedy said HHS expected several announcements in the coming years that the parents inform about the underlying cause of autism and “potential ways for prevention and reversal”. He admitted that autism is a complex disorder caused by a combination of factors and said that HHS continues to investigate other factors such as vaccines.

“An area that we examine exactly … about 40% to 70% of mothers with autism believe that their child was injured by a vaccine,” said Kennedy. “President Trump believes that we should listen to these mothers instead of gas light instead of like previous administrations.”

Extensive studies have exposed many years of concerns that vaccines are associated with autism, an assertion that Kennedy and other vaccine critics have promoted for several years.

Research in the use of paracetamol and autism

Washington Post reported on Friday that the Trump administration officers checked previous research that indicate a connection between the use of paracetamol during pregnancy and an increased risk of autism. In the post office, it is said that Mount Sinai and Harvard researchers check in 46 earlier studies, which focus on a connection between pre -born exposure to medicinal products and increased risk of neurological developmental disorders such as autism or attention deficit disorder or ADHD.

The review showed that the association is the most if paracetamol is taken for four weeks or more, said Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, one of his authors and dean of the faculty on the Harvard Th Chan School of Public Health. The review was financed by a subsidy by the National Institutes of Health.

“This biological knowledge supports the possibility of a causal relationship between prenatal paracetamol exposure and neurological developmental disorders, including autism,” said Baccarelli and added that further examinations are necessary to “confirm the association and determine causality”.

Due to existing evidence, he said that “caution about the use of paracetamol during pregnancy – in particular severe or longer use – was justified”. Baccarelli said, however, that paracetamol remains a critical instrument for pregnant women and their doctors, since the drug is the only approved drug for pain and fever.

He said he and his colleagues recommend a “balanced approach based on the precautionary principle: patients who need fever or pain reduction during pregnancy should take the lowest efficacy dose of the drug for the shortest duration after they have consulted their doctor about their individual risks and advantages. Nih director Jay Bhattcharya and Kennedy discussed.

The results of the studies examined by the researchers are published in contradiction to other robust studies, including one in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year, in which it was found that the use of paracetamol during pregnancy was not associated with autism, ADHD or intellectual disability. The researchers analyzed the health records of 2.5 million children in Sweden.

When the researchers initially looked at the general population, there was a very low risk of disruption in children whose mothers took the drug during pregnancy. However, the researchers were not related after comparing siblings within the same family: one that was exposed to paracetamol during pregnancy, and the other.

From Monday before the announcement, the FDA website said that the agency had not found a “clear evidence” that adequate use of paracetamol during pregnancy “disadvantageous pregnancy, birth, neurobora or development results” caused. The American College of Obstricians and Gynecologists claims that paracetamol is safe during pregnancy if they are instructed and taken after advising a health service provider.

Some parents submitted complaints in which they were said that they had born children with autism after using the pain reliever.

However, a federal judge in Manhattan decided in 2023 that some of these complaints had no scientific evidence and later ended the legal disputes in 2024.

– Angelica Peebles from CNBC contributed to this report