Using common painkillers during pregnancy may increase ADHD risk in children

Children whose mothers used paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, during pregnancy are more likely to develop ADHD than those whose mothers did not suggest a small study. While it is far from crucial, the finding is the competition idea that the widely used Pain Relon Mary affects fetal brain development.

Previous studies of paracetamol and neurode development conditions have provided conflicting findings. For example, a 2019 study that involved more than 4700 children and their mothers linked the use of painkillers during pregnancy with a 20 percent greater risk of children developing ADHD. However, an analysis published last year of nearly 2.5 million children showed no such association what compared siblings who either won or wree did not exhibit for paracetamol before birth.

One question is that most of these studies are dependent on self -reported drug use, a significant limitation considering that people may not remember paracetamol while pregnant. For example, only 7 percent of participants reported in the 2019 pacetamol during pregnancy – well below the 50 percent seen in other studies. “Many people take [paracetamol] Without knowing it, ”says Brennan Baker at the University of Washington in Seattle. “It may be the active ingredient in some cold medicine you use and you know not to know.”

So Baker and his colleagues used a more accurate metric instaad. They look for markers of the medicine in blood test collection from 307 women, all of whom were black and lively in Tennessee, during their second trimester. None of them thought we medicine for chronic conditions or had known pregnancy complications. The researchers then followed up with the participants, which Thur children were between 8 and 10 years old. In the United States, approx. 8 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 11 ADHD.

On average, children whose mothers had markers of paracetamol in their blood were three times as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than children born of mothers non-self after adjusting for factors such as the mother’s age, previous body mass index (BMI BMI ), socio -economic status and mental health conditions among their immonday family members. This suggests that the use of paracetamol during pregnancy may raise the children’s risk of developing ADHD.

However, is it also possible that the actual factor? “They have not been able to give for things like mother’s reason to take [paracetamol]Such as headaches or fever gold or infections that we know are risk factors for opposing children’s development, ”says Viktor Ahlqvist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

But Baker thinks it is the material itself that is responsible. A subsequent analysis of tissue samples from 174 of the participants’ placentas showed that those using pacetamol had different metabolic and immune system changes. These changes are similar to those seen in studies that tested the effects of paracetamol in pregnant animals within an infection or underlying health.

“The fact that we also see the immune regulation in animal models, I think, really strengthens the case for causali,” says Baker. “There is a lot of previous work showing that elevated immun activation during pregnancy is associated with conflicting neurode.”

Still, these findings are far from crucial. First, the study included a small number of participants, all of whom were black and lived in the same city – which limited the generalizability of the results. For another, it only measured blood markers of paracetamol in an instant. These markers last for about three days, so the study probably caught more frequently users and there may be a dose -dependent effect, Baker says.

“” “[Paracetamol] is currently the first line therapeutic option for pain and fever in pregnancy, ”says Baker. “But I think agencies like [US Food and Drug Administration] And various obstetric and gynyecology associations must be a continuous review of all available research and updating their guidance.

In the meantime, people need to talk to their doctors if they are uncertain about where to take paracetamol during pregnancy, Baker says.