What the Science Actually Says
In recent years, sensationalist headlines have suggested a link between paracetamol (acetaminophen) use during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental issues like autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the current toxicological and epidemiological consensus suggests that these associations are likely not causal. A landmark 2024 study involving nearly 2.5 million children in Sweden utilised rigorous “sibling-pair” analysis to control for the confounding effects of shared genetic and environmental factors.
The results, as summarised by the University of New South Wales, demonstrated that when siblings were compared—where one was exposed in utero and the other was not—the statistical link to autism effectively vanished. This suggests that the “confounding by indication”—the underlying reason the medication was taken, such as a severe maternal infection or high fever—or shared familial genetics were the true drivers of the observation, rather than the pharmacological action of the drug itself. Major health bodies, including the World Health Organization (WHO), continue to advise that paracetamol remains the first-line and safest option for managing pain and fever during pregnancy, provided it is used at the lowest effective dose for the shortest possible duration.