ReviewCureus2022
A Systematic Review of the Link Between Autism Spectrum Disorder and Acetaminophen: A Mystery to Resolve.
Review in Cureus, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Maternal paracetamol (acetaminophen) use during pregnancy and risk of autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in offspring: umbrella review of systematic reviews.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Pooled it
- Evaluation of the evidence on acetaminophen use and neurodevelopmental disorders using the Navigation Guide methodology.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2025Pooled it
- Article
- Exploring pathological targets and advancing pharmacotherapy in autism spectrum disorder: Contributions of glial cells and heavy metals.Histology and histopathology · 2025Review
- Acetaminophen effects upon formalin-evoked flinching, postformalin, and postincisional allodynia and conditioned place preference.Pain reports · 2024Article
- Review
- Acetaminophen causes neurodevelopmental injury in susceptible babies and children: no valid rationale for controversy.Clinical and experimental pediatrics · 2024Article
- Prenatal Acetaminophen Exposure and its Associated Risk for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.Health psychology research · 2024Article
- Multi-omics approach reveals dysregulated genes during hESCs neuronal differentiation exposure to paracetamol.iScience · 2023Article
- The relationship of prenatal acetaminophen exposure and attention-related behavior in early childhood.Neurotoxicology and teratologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to review the published papers investigating maternal acetaminophen (AP) use during pregnancy and its effect on the offspring's neurodevelopment, particularly autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Acetaminophen is an over-the-counter analgesic and antipyretic considered safe in pregnancy. Recent studies have found an association between acetaminophen and immune system alterations like asthma and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. We used online databases (PubMed/Medline/PubMed Central, Science Direct, and Google Scholar) to search the studies relevant to our topic. We screened the papers by titles, abstracts, and then full-text availability. The screened articles were checked for eligibility using relevant quality assessment tools for each study design, extracting and analyzing the data. We finalized 30 studies after the screening; 14 were ineligible. Our final selection included 16 high-quality papers - 13 prospective cohort studies, two review articles, and one meta-analysis. We found a wide range of neurodevelopmental outcomes in our data collection. So, we included autism spectrum disorders, intelligent quotient (IQ), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), isolated language, attention and executive function, communication, behavior, and psychomotor development. All studies showed an association between acetaminophen use and listed neurodevelopmental outcomes. Long-term use, increased dose, and frequency were associated with a stronger association. We extracted collective evidence from 16 studies suggesting acetaminophen's role in developing adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. It is urgent to do more research on this association before pregnant women can be cautioned about the precise use of acetaminophen.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.