No, Paracetamol Does Not Cause Autism. But Misinformation Might

Written by

Oscar Virdee

Published on

September 25, 2025

‍Trump’s New Target: Paracetamol

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On Monday 22nd September, President Donald Trump made the claim that women taking paracetamol during pregnancy, known as Tylenol in the United States and with the medical name acetaminophen, causes autism. Trump made this statement alongside the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has routinely mumbled misinformation on the causes of autism. In April, RFK blamed environmental causes for the uptick in autism cases. Now, apparently, it is painkillers.

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Figure 1 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump at a campaign event. Photo by Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 2.0

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The Ghost of Wakefield Still Lingers
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This is not the first time we have seen false reports linking everyday medicine to autism. In 1998, The Lancet published a paper written by Andrew Wakefield, who claimed that the MMR vaccine caused autism. That paper has cost untold lives and directly fuelled the myth that vaccines cause autism. The study was retracted in 2010, with The Lancet’s editor Richard Horton telling The Guardian,

“It was utterly clear, without any ambiguity at all, that the statements in the paper were utterly false… I feel I was deceived.”

Despite this, RFK Jr and Trump still parrot Wakefield’s claims, hellbent on their madness to find a cause and a cure for autism.
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Scientists, Charities and Common Sense Respond
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Numerous autism charities have spoken out against Trump’s claims. Professor Andrew Whitehouse, autism researcher at the Kids Research Institute in Australia, told ABC News,

“There is categorically no evidence that paracetamol use causes autism.”

“At best, this is a misreading of science, at worst, it is a misuse.”

He also pointed out what should be obvious, that untreated fever and pain during pregnancy can cause harm to both mother and baby. In other words, the risk comes not from taking paracetamol, but from avoiding it when it is actually needed.

The Chorus for Calm Is Growing
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Professor Whitehouse is not alone in his frustration. Leading psychologists, paediatricians and public health officials have spoken out to denounce these delusions.

Professor Monique Botha, a specialist in social and developmental psychology at Durham University, told BBC News that this kind of fear mongering could deter women from seeking appropriate care during pregnancy, a time already clouded with anxiety, caution and clinical complexity.

She said there is no robust evidence to suggest any causal relationship between paracetamol and autism and added that it is a much safer pain relief option during pregnancy than basically any other alternative.

Professor Claire Anderson, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, joined the chorus, saying paracetamol has been used safely by millions of people for decades, including during pregnancy. This is not some strange new chemical, it is a trusted medicine that has been in use longer than most of us have been alive.

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Figure 1 Photo by Suzy Hazelwood: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-photo-of-pills-3652092/

The Study That Shut It Down
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And yet, like clockwork, the conspiracies return, resurfacing every few years like a recycled rumour or an orange president.

But if these wild claims are the conspiracy theorist’s spark, the Swedish sibling study is the fire extinguisher.

Published in 2024 and covering more than 2.4 million children, it is one of the largest and most comprehensive investigations into this supposed link.

Researchers found a very slight increase, barely a flicker, in autism and ADHD diagnoses among children whose mothers’ used paracetamol during pregnancy. But when they analysed siblings, children raised in the same household, with the same genetics and same socioeconomic surroundings, the link vanished like mist in morning light.

No causation, no correlation, no conspiracy. The study concluded that any previous associations were likely the result of familial confounding, that is, shared environmental or genetic factors, not the medication itself.

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The Real Danger Is What Spreads
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But nuance, unfortunately, does not go viral. While scientists are doing the work of science, RFK Jr and Trump are mumbling into microphones, stringing together syllables like pseudo-medical spaghetti.

Their followers do not want footnotes or peer review; they want fuel for their fire. And that is what makes this so dangerous.

Because behind every sensationalist headline is a pregnant woman second-guessing her doctor. Behind every viral clip is a mother lying awake wondering if the headache tablet, she took months ago will scar her child for life.

It is not just misinformation; it is mental terrorism.
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The Obsession With Blame
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Let’s also be brutally honest about what sits beneath many of these claims, a desperate, almost deranged obsession with blame.

For decades, autism has been miscast not as a difference, but a defect, something to fear, avoid or fix.

Trump and Kennedy treat it like a riddle that must be solved, a diagnosis that must be reversed, a mystery that must be pinned on someone, or something.

In doing so, they pathologise neurodivergence and perpetuate the poisonous idea that a world with autistic people is a world gone wrong.That, in itself, is far more damaging than any over the counter drug.
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What the Numbers Actually Say
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The reality is this, autism diagnoses are rising. But not because of paracetamol, not because of vaccines, and certainly not because of demonic modern medicine.

They are rising because we are finally getting better at recognising autism. In 2025, the CDC reported that more children, especiallyBlack, Hispanic and low income children, are being diagnosed earlier than ever before.

This is not a sign of epidemic, it is a sign of progress. A sign that the systems we have long used to overlook people are finally, maybe, starting to see them.
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What We Should Be Saying Instead
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So where does that leave us? It leaves us with the truth.

Paracetamol does not cause autism. But what it might help with is a fever, or a migraine, or a long night in your third trimester when nothing else seems to work. And that is enough. That is its job.

The burden of proof should never fall on the medicine that helps, it should fall on the men making the claims.

Let’s stop giving these charlatans a microphone and start giving the public the facts. Because the facts, dull, unspectacular and unsexy though they may be, have one thing the conspiracies never will.

The power to heal.
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