LEXINGTON, Ly. (LEX 18) — The medical community is expressing criticism and concern following President Trump and the Food and Drug Administration's announcement last week connecting Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism diagnoses.
"The information made me both mad and embarrassed," said Dr. Michael Simon.
Dr. Simon has been practicing pediatrics in Lexington for more than three decades, and has authored two books on pediatrics: The Pediatric Primer and Children Who Society Has Lost or Abandoned.
Last week, President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. linked the use of acetaminophen — or Tylenol — to autism diagnoses in children. The FDA initiated the process to change the labels of acetaminophen products.
"Tylenol in and of itself, does not seem to be a trigger or cause of autism," Simon said.
It's an announcement Simon says not only lacks evidence but can also be harmful.
"We want to be careful and smart to not provide information that would be incorrect that's going to alter family dynamics," Simon said.
Simon says the studies that have linked Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism aren't specific enough.
"How are you quantifying that? Is it how much Tylenol mom's taking? How often? At what point of the pregnancy? How often is she doing that? Without quantifying that, you can't put a label that Tylenol is what's causing it — you're not documenting the use of the Tylenol," Simon said.
Autism, Simon says, is diagnosed differently than it has been in past decades. In 1995, 1 in 500 children were likely to be diagnosed with autism. Now, the CDC reports 1 in 31 children are identified with autism spectrum disorder.
In 2013, autism spectrum disorder was introduced to combine neurological diagnoses that were previously considered separate, which Simon says has contributed to the uptick.
While we don't know what exactly causes autism in every case, Simon says factors include genetics and parental health, and particularly maternal health during pregnancy.
"That's a big part of the confusion these days — we don't know what those are. But if Tylenol were the problem, every child exposed to Tylenol would be autistic. And we know that's certainly not the case," Simon said.
As for whether it's safe to take Tylenol during pregnancy, here's what Simon says:
"With no reservations, yes."
