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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday August 18 2016, @12:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the that-explains-a-lot dept.

A new study claims that women who use acetaminophen during pregnancy are more likely to have a hyperactive child.

Acetaminophen is also known as paracetamol and by the brand name Tylenol. It is used as a pain reliever and fever reducer and is often bundled into other medications. It has been in the news the last few years because of the risk of overdose and liver damage, and a lot of combination children's medicines that include it have been removed from the market because of the risk that parents may not understand and may overdose the child with the combination medicine and a separate dose of acetaminophen.

the researchers discovered that a mother using acetaminophen at 18 weeks of pregnancy was associated with a greater chance of her child becoming hyperactive or developing conduct problems. At 32 weeks into pregnancy, a mother's use of acetaminophen was linked to higher odds of her child having emotional symptoms, conduct problems and hyperactivity symptoms.

"It is important to note there are no studies demonstrating a causal link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and adverse effects on child development," said Marc Boston, a spokesman for McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the maker of Tylenol.

Acetaminophen has long been considered safe for use during pregnancy.


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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday August 18 2016, @01:05AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday August 18 2016, @01:05AM (#389422) Homepage Journal

    Yes the label says to take it for no more than ten days, but it's printed in a typeface that's too small for elderly people to read.

    Over 1000 over-the-counter drugs contain acetiminophen.

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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 18 2016, @01:41AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 18 2016, @01:41AM (#389435) Journal

    You've got a point with the small print and elderly people. But, elderly people don't produce babies, hyperactive or otherwise.

    • (Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Thursday August 18 2016, @01:22PM

      by Hyperturtle (2824) on Thursday August 18 2016, @01:22PM (#389573)

      I've avoided acetaminophen due to its toxicity to the liver; when combined with other things (fumes from painting the house, or bug spray, or weed killer, or from a regular trip to a parking garage, or working in the city, or in a relatively polluted area, or trapped inside one's lavish basement filled with technological things with plastics that emit volatile organic fumes that may or may not cause harm, and flame retardants in typical ethernet cabling and even just the plastics themselves...)

      It seems to me that some other pain reliever might kill me less quickly when combined with other knowns and unknowns.

      Maybe it's not really based on sound science, but I'd prefer to avoid toxicity via ignorance when possible--who knows if the effects of some things are that much harder when combined with something already known to be toxic to the liver by itself, and most body toxins are cleaned via a trip through the liver...We as people intoxicate ourselves via willful ignorance often enough to know that as a general rule, if I can, I shouldn't try to burn the liver's candle in the middle, too, when both ends are burning brightly already.