Scientists say that the most-robust research has found no link. “The better-controlled studies are less likely to find even a small risk,” says Helen Tager-Flusberg, a psychologist who studies autism at Boston University in Massachusetts. “And even then, what we’re talking about is a minor association. We do not think that taking acetaminophen is in any way contributing to actually causing autism.”
...
The study led by Ahlqvist harnessed data from nearly 2.5 million children born in Sweden between 1995 and 2019 and — from the country’s extensive health records — data on paracetamol prescriptions during pregnancy and on self-reported use collected by midwives, as well as whether children later received autism diagnoses.
The study showed that around 1.42% of children exposed to paracetamol during pregnancy were autistic, compared with 1.33% of children who were not exposed ─ a “very small” difference, says Ahlqvist.
The team also compared pairs of siblings (born to the same mother), in which one had been exposed to paracetamol and one had not. Siblings share half of their genome, a similar upbringing and maternal health, so differences in autism are more likely to be due to the drug. Using this method, the researchers found no association between paracetamol and autism — which supports the idea that links found in other studies could be explained by confounding factors.
A large, high-quality study<a href="
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02876-1#ref-CR2" data-track="click" data-action="anchor-link" data-track-label="go to reference" data-track-category="references">2</a> from Japan of more than 200,000 children — also using sibling comparisons and published this year — found no link between paracetamol use in pregnancy and autism.
) "More words" arent context.
