(Washington) Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy son said at a press conference on Monday that acetaminophen is “associated” with autism and that women should “fall asleep” and take it in the last resort. Their exit was criticized by most autism specialists.
Read the article “according to Canadian obstetricians – Take pregnant tylenol is safe”
What happened during the press conference on autism?
President Trump and RFK, the nickname of his health secretary, said that a recent study supported them on tylenol and autism. After having had difficulty pronouncing the word “acetaminophen”, Trump said that only 10 % of women really needed to take it during a pregnancy and that they had to stick to the “smallest possible doses”. “Endure yourself” (tough it out), he added.
A warning will be sent to doctors by Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the regulatory organization of drugs, indicating that acetaminophen is “associated” with a “much higher” risk of autism.
They also announced that a drug, leucuvorine, would be urgently approved to “treat autism”. It is a form of folic acid.
Trump also reported the history of one of his employees, the child of which had a diagnosis of autism after receiving a bleak-uproot-oreillons (RRO) vaccine. He praised the decision, last week, of a committee on the vaccination of disease control and prevention centers (CDC), which recommended separate vaccines for these three diseases, despite the lack of scientific evidence that they put a risk for autism.
How do doctors react?
“It is a total absurdity, both for vaccines and for acetaminophen,” says Laurent Mottron, an autism specialist at the University of Montreal. He believes that evidence of a leucovorine effect on autism is almost nonexistent. “We could just as easily approve celery or chamomile. »»
Lili Plourde, Director General of the Quebec Autism Federation, “wacky” considers these allegations on acetaminophen, vaccines or leucuvorine.
The American Pediatrics Association (AAP) denounced an “event filled with dangerous claims and misleading information” which “does not do service to autistic”.
What is the White House based on to target Tylenol?
The many studies on taking Tylenol during pregnancy did not reach concordant results.
During the press conference at the White House, a study published in August in the journal Environmental Health was cited to justify the decision. This meta-analysis was leaned over 46 studies on acetaminophen during pregnancy and autism, and concluded that an association between the two was.
But the methodology of this study is disputed. Research compiled in meta-analysis was prioritized according to “random” criteria, deplores Brian Lee, from Drexel University. Mr. Lee published last year in the Journal of the American medical association (Jama) A study on two million Swedish brothers and sisters showing that there is no link between acetaminophen and autism. He quotes another study similar to his, Japanese, on twins, published this year with the same results as his.
Contacted by The pressOne of the co-authors of the study cited by the White House, Andrea Baccarelli, of Harvard University, said that he recently stressed Robert Kennedy son the essential role of acetaminophen in the treatment of fever in pregnant women, but “in the smallest possible dose”. Fever in pregnant women leads to health risks of the fetus, especially neurological.
What should a pregnant woman who wants to take acetaminophen?
“As professionals, it worries us that people do not use effective treatment if they need it,” says Brigitte Martin, a pharmacist specializing in neonatalogy and pregnancy medication at the Sainte-Justine CHU. “Acetaminophen is really the analgesic drug, against fever, privileged during pregnancy. Sometimes women will think to reduce risks that are uncertain while a fever that is not well controlled or pain that is not well mastered have very real consequences. »»
Brigitte Martin indicates, however, that non -drug avenues exist for certain types of pain – heat or massage, for example – and could be envisaged before acetaminophen.
Why does the prevalence of autism increase?
Donald Trump said autism is five times more frequent than 20 years ago. In the United States, prevalence has indeed increased by 1 in 68 to 1 in 31 children aged 8 between 2015 and 2022.
According to the DR Mottron, this increase is largely linked to the expansion of diagnostic criteria. To this end, he cites a British study of 2009 showing that the prevalence of autism had remained stable for 20 years if we took the criteria of the 1980s. The increase essentially concerns the less severe forms of autism, particularly in the United States, according to him.
“We consider it a bit of everyone, instead of arriving at this diagnosis last. But there is now a pendulum return, (and with this fix), we now risk a sub-diagnosis. »»
The DR Lee believes that if the prevalence of autism increases, this may be attributable to air pollution.
Can Donald Trump’s words on autism, which he considers a “horrible” disorder, lead to ostracism?
“We must not do angelism,” says the DR Mottron. It is dishonest not to say that the life of autistic people is more difficult. But stated like that, autism looks like an error. »The DR Mottron gives as an example hyper religious for whom “everything that deviates from the norm is a mistake”.
