Scientists studied the medical records of people across the US who visited emergency departments or outpatient clinics in the past year. They found that acetaminophen use among pregnant women in the ER decreased after Trump’s announcement. Meanwhile, prescriptions for children for leucovorin, a drug now promoted by the White House as an autism treatment with little supporting data, increased during the same time.
“Although causal claims cannot be made, the observed associations are consistent with the impact of the new FDA recommendations on clinical decisions,” the authors write in their paper published Thursday in The Lancet.
tylenol scapegoat
RFK Jr. and other health officials have been somewhat restrained in blaming acetaminophen (widely called paracetamol outside the US) for autism, noting that more research is needed to show a causal link. However, Trump certainly hasn’t been. At the September press conference, he repeatedly told the women to stop using acetaminophen immediately, even yelling at them several times. The administration has also said it will take regulatory action soon, such as adding warning labels on acetaminophen products.
Some studies have suggested a possible association between maternal acetaminophen use and autism, but many others have not. Two recent reviews of the data, including one published this January, failed to find solid evidence for any cause-and-effect relationship. However, given Trump’s bullying platform and his enduring popularity among a section of the country, it’s certainly possible that some people listened to his advice.
Study researchers examined data from Cosmos, a database representing more than 200 million patient records collected from health care systems in the US and other countries. They focused on US patient data in the three months before and after the September autism announcement, looking at orders for acetaminophen for pregnant women in the ER. They also tracked outpatient prescriptions of leucovorin, a drug that Trump and health officials first endorsed as a treatment for autism in a September announcement.
Researchers found that after Trump’s announcement, ER orders for acetaminophen among pregnant women dropped by about 10%. Acetaminophen orders did not decrease, nor did opioid orders decrease, among non-pregnant women, supporting the idea that this this decree Only maternal use of acetaminophen was affected. They also found that outpatient prescriptions of leucovorin increased by 71% compared to before Trump’s announcement.
ripple effect
Of course, acetaminophen is widely taken outside the ER, so it’s still unclear how its use in general might have changed across the country. The researchers also noted that their study can’t tell us how much of this change is due to pregnant women rejecting the drug, while doctors have decided not to prescribe it for their pregnant patients.
“[N]“Nevertheless, they show the clear power that public authority figures have to bring about sudden changes in health care practices,” they wrote.
Maybe there is some good news. The researchers found that ER orders for acetaminophen began to increase from late November to early December. It is possible, then, that the Trump effect diminished over time, especially as more and more health organizations denounced the autism link. That said, winter is also cold and flu season, so the increased orders may simply reflect a seasonal trend.
Obviously, more study is needed to learn how Trump’s announcement has changed maternal acetaminophen use in the US, but if it continues to decline, it could have serious long-term effects on the health of women and their babies, researchers say.
They wrote, “These changes may have several potential consequences, including higher incidence of untreated fever (a risk factor for neurological disorders) and the use of antipyretic or analgesic drugs that are less safe to use during pregnancy than paracetamol, which is safe to use during pregnancy.”
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