Mothers Taking Tylenol Tied to Child's ADHD

Taking pain relievers like Tylenol when pregnant may lead to your child developing ADHD, according to a new study.

The study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association: Pediatrics, provides evidence that helps supports a long-held suspicion that acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, can affect the development of a child's brain.

Pregnant women have long been warned about what to put in their body, and medical professional know well enough to warn them away from certain painkillers. However, in the case of acetaminophen products, no evidence indicated that taking the drug could harm a mother's baby -- until now.

The study analyzed data on well over 64,000 Danish women and their children. The women answered questions about their daily behaviors, including whether or not they took painkillers during their pregnancy. Researchers found that children whose mothers took acetaminophen-based pain killers, such as Tylenol or Excedrin, were 29 percent more likely to be diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), compared to the children of mothers who did not take the drug during pregnancy. It is important to note that the study did not differentiate women who took the drug frequently from those who took it only sparingly over the course of their pregnancy.

These findings, although alarming, do not necessary mean that Tylenol is to blame for a child developing ADHD. The researchers noted in their study that the data only highlights a correlation, and not a cause and effect relationship.

In fact, it isn't clear to professionals how acetaminophen could affect the development of a child's brain in the first place. Critics of the study point out that the cause behind a heightened rate of ADHD may not be the Tylenol itself, but the reasons for taking it. It has become the increasingly popular opinion among medical professionals that a viral infection of even increased immune system activity in a mother can severely hamper a child's development while in the womb.

Of course, the study's authors suggest that now that a correlation between acetaminophen and ADHD has been found, research looking into a causal relationship can begin.

The study was published in JAMA Pediatrics on February 24.