Medication During Pregnancy | Does Taking Paracetamol During Pregnancy Increase the Risk of Autism and ADHD? HKU Study Confirms No Link, Pregnant Women Need Not Suffer in Pain

Taking medication during pregnancy often worries expectant mothers about its impact on fetal health. A team from the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Medicine has found in its latest research that taking the commonly used pain reliever and fever reducer “paracetamol” during pregnancy does not increase the risk of autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The research team said this study is the first to adopt the “sibling-matched comparison” approach—comparing the circumstances of multiple children born to the same mother—to effectively rule out the influence of genetic factors and the family environment. The team analyzed electronic medical record data for a total of 708,020 mother-and-infant pairs across Hong Kong from 2000 to 2023. Although the initial results suggested that taking “paracetamol” caused a slight increase in related risk, with the further use of the “sibling-matched comparison” method, it was found that whether the mother took “paracetamol” in the early, middle, or late stages of pregnancy, whether she continued taking it or not, and regardless of dosage, showed “no association” with her children’s risk of autism or ADHD.

Researchers: When she was pregnant herself, she was too afraid to take medication and chose to endure the pain—driving her to pursue the study

Assistant Professor (Research) Luo Shan from the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care, School of Clinical Medicine, HKU Faculty of Medicine, said that earlier overseas studies had suggested that “paracetamol” might be linked to children’s risk of autism or ADHD. Therefore, even though she had shingles during her own pregnancy, she still did not dare to take the medicine and endured the pain. This experience inspired her to conduct the research, to dispel women’s concerns about taking medication during pregnancy: “If I had known this information at the time, perhaps it could have helped me ease the pain I was experiencing.”

Professor Peter Tanuseputro, a Clinical Professor in the same department, added: “The results of different past studies have been inconsistent, leaving many expectant parents confused and causing unnecessary anxiety. As a result, some pregnant women choose to endure the pain or switch to other medications with poorer safety profiles. We use large-scale Chinese population data to conduct ‘sibling-matched’ analyses, providing further strong evidence so that pregnant women can take paracetamol with confidence when they need to.”