Since President Trump said that use of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, during pregnancy is linked to autism, world health officials have rejected the claim.
Dr. Doug Phelan, a primary care physician in Windham, said there's no clear evidence supporting a link between autism and Tylenol use by pregnant patients. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said that decades of research has not shown a concrete connection between the drug and neurological developmental disorders.
“I've already started to get messages from patients asking about it. We certainly talk about it in the office,” Phelan said. “I'm sure everywhere there are medical providers, they're talking about these types of things as they come up.”
Phelan said that he advises pregnant people to use Tylenol sparingly, but that there are important uses.
“Maybe they can't use their previous migraine medications during pregnancy, they tripped off a curb and they hurt themselves or, God forbid, broke a bone while they were pregnant,” Phelan said.
Phelan said he is going to continue to advise patients to take Tylenol.
“I'm going to be looking at acetaminophen the same way that I looked at it yesterday,” Phelan said. “The only wrinkle is to see how this plays out in terms of firmer guidelines coming down out of CMS [Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services] and the FDA, depending upon the official language that they release.”
Phelan is the president of the New Hampshire Academy of Family Physicians, but spoke to NHPR on behalf of his personal experience as a provider.
Dr. Katherine Himes, who is the director of maternal medicine at Dartmouth Hitchcock, also says that Tylenol has been long and widely studied to be safe during pregnancy.
“It does take your breath away a little bit too, to see such kind of harmful misinformation shared from such a loud platform,” Himes said.
“Not treating pain and fever in pregnancy is harmful and therefore not something we would recommend,” Himes said.
Himes said she's worried the administration's announcement could cause unnecessary anxiety for people during pregnancy, and recommended checking professional societies like ACOG or the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine for more information.
