Study links higher acetaminophen use during pregnancy to language delays in early childhood

Is acetaminophen safe during pregnancy? The debate rages.

Now, researchers at Northeastern University are adding to the discussion and discovering a relationship between increased acetaminophen use during pregnancy and language delays in early childhood.

“We found that in people who took more acetaminophen during pregnancy, their children tended to have more delayed language development during early childhood, particularly in male children, and that was especially true with acetaminophen use during the third trimester,” says postdoctoral researcher Megan Woodbury. associate at Northeastern.

Woodbury cautions, however, that researchers could not determine that acetaminophen use directly caused the delay in language development.

“We’re not entirely sure whether it’s the acetaminophen that’s causing this effect,” says Woodbury. “Is this really due to acetaminophen use, or is it related to fever during pregnancy or illness during pregnancy, or other variables?”

Acetaminophen, better known by the brand name Tylenol, is one of the most commonly used medications worldwide, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists considers it safe during pregnancy to treat fever and pain. However, research has suggested associations between acetaminophen use and attention and behavior problems in children, likely due to the drug affecting prenatal neurodevelopment.

But Woodbury says researchers haven’t examined whether increased acetaminophen consumption could affect language development. Additionally, previous studies have only collected data on acetaminophen use at a few points during pregnancy, or even only after the baby is born.

This study, however, uses data collected from 532 newborns participating in the Illinois Kids Development Study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign between December 2013 and March 2020. The data measured acetaminophen use six times during a pregnancy (approximately every four to six weeks). ). This allowed the researchers to break down the data by quarter. The children’s language skills were assessed at just over two years old and at age 3, and this data was then compared to that of their peers.

The results were published this month in the journal Pediatric research.

Woodbury and colleagues at the University of Illinois found no association between increased acetaminophen use during the first trimester and delayed language development.

However, increased acetaminophen use during the second trimester was linked to lower language scores for offspring compared to their peers at 3 years of age, as well as smaller vocabulary and shorter sentence duration at 2 years compared to peers.

And increased acetaminophen use during the third trimester was linked to smaller vocabulary at age 2 in the combined group of children and lower language scores at age 3 for the combined group of children. When separated by gender, boys, but not girls, showed lower language achievement than their peers.

What does that mean?

“We estimate that if a pregnant person took acetaminophen 13 times – or once a week during the third trimester – a child’s vocabulary could be 26 words smaller than that of their peers by age 2 years old and he would be 91% more likely to have less complex language skills by age 2,” says Woodbury.

So, does this mean that using acetaminophen is dangerous during pregnancy? Well, Woodbury noted that she was in her second trimester of pregnancy and had taken acetaminophen the day before.

“Basically what I said in discussing this with my obstetrician and other researchers is that if you absolutely need to take acetaminophen – the pain is too bad, nothing else works or won’t work, you have a fever to bring down – so take it: it’s not going to ruin your child’s life,” says Woodbury. “Just try not to take it constantly.”

This story is republished courtesy of Northeastern Global News news.northeastern.edu.