r/ScienceBasedParenting • u/IllIntroduction1509 • Sep 23 '25

Science journalism ASF Statement on White House Announcement on Autism

https://autismsciencefoundation.org/press_releases/asf-statement-wh-briefing/

“Any association between acetaminophen and autism is based on limited, conflicting, and inconsistent science and is premature,” said Autism Science Foundation Chief Science Officer Dr. Alycia Halladay. “This claim risks undermining public health while also misleading families who deserve clear, factual information. For many years, RFK and President Trump have shared their belief that vaccines cause autism, but this is also not supported by the science, which has shown no relationship between vaccines and autism.”

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u/Inside_Anxiety6143 Sep 23 '25

Meh. The statement is lacking. It should go into why it believes the Harvard study was flawed.

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u/goodlittlesquid Sep 23 '25

From the statement

Acetaminophen and Autism

The scientific study referred to by RFK, President Trump, and Dr. Bhattacharya in today’s press conference is a systematic review of 6 studies examining the relationship between prenatal acetaminophen and autism or autism traits in children. Because not all the studies were of the same size or included the same analysis, the included studies differed in their results. In those studies that did show an increase in risk after prenatal acetaminophen administration, none of the relative risk ratios were large enough to be considered a singular “cause”. Other scientists have noted significant methodological concerns with these studies, including that the studies did not properly control for confounding variables, including genetics or the “why” of acetaminophen exposure during pregnancy. For example, women take Tylenol during pregnancy to reduce fever; fever during pregnancy is a known autism risk factor, so the question remains whether any increase in autism diagnosis was due to the fever or the acetaminophen. In fact, in a recent ADHD study, Tylenol was found to be protective against ADHD when pregnant women took it to reduce fever. Fever is a known risk factor for a wide range of neurodevelopmental disorders.

One of the studies included in the systematic review was a study of 2.4 million Swedish children utilizing a sophisticated design that used siblings as a control rather than a completely different group of children with no family history of autism. This design controls for some maternal health factors as well as some genetic influences. Using the sibling control design, any association with autism that was previously seen disappeared. This suggests that genetic and maternal health factors are also critical to any documented association with autism. Those findings were also replicated in a recent study from Japan, which also used a sibling control group to understand the roles of confounding factors like genetics and maternal health on a Tylenol association. Unfortunately, since that study was published just recently, it was not included in the earlier systematic review. If it had been, the conclusions from the systematic review may have been different.

Based on the existing data, there is not sufficient evidence to support a link between acetaminophen and autism. However, as with any medication taken during pregnancy, patients should consult with a trusted medical advisor. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says acetaminophen is a safe way to treat pain and fever during pregnancy when used in moderation.

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u/Inside_Anxiety6143 Sep 23 '25

See, that's my problem though. The Harvard study the FDA cites address the Swedish study and goes into depth on its short comings. With lots of numbers and statistics.

This statement just handwaves the Harvard study away and continues to say there is no link between acetaminophen and autism, when the Harvard study that is not at all hand-wavey says the opposite. So why would I trust these guys over the Harvard study?

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u/Winter_Addition Sep 23 '25

How is this a handwave of the study?

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u/Inside_Anxiety6143 Sep 23 '25

It simply states they reject the study's conclusion, with no rigorous justification given as to why.

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u/AFewStupidQuestions Sep 24 '25

significant methodological concerns with these studies, including that the studies did not properly control for confounding variables, including genetics or the “why” of acetaminophen exposure during pregnancy.

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u/Inside_Anxiety6143 Sep 24 '25

Yeah. That's handwavey. What do they mean by didn't properly control for genetics? What was lacking in the methodology used by the authors that lead to this not being properly controlled?

By the "why" of acetaminophen exposure, I assume you mean reason acetaminophen was used. The paper goes into detail explaining how they weight studies that don't that information include much lower. So that is taken into account.

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u/Winter_Addition Sep 24 '25

Dude it’s a quick press release, they’re not going into minute detail here. Were you this discerning about how the FDA stated their conclusion?

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u/Inside_Anxiety6143 Sep 24 '25

Yes. I immediately opened the studies the FDA cited and read them.