Tylenol Use in Pregnant Women in Emergency Departments Fell After Trump's Autism Claims

Physician researchers from Harvard and Brown University suggested in The Lancet that Tylenol use among pregnant women fell after President Trump’s claims that its use during pregnancy is linked to autism. CIDRAP has the news.

Trump made these statements “at a White House briefing, where he called leucovorin ‘an exciting therapy that may benefit large numbers of children who have suffered from autism,’ which was followed by [an FDA] label update listing it as a potential treatment for cerebral folate deficiency, a rare neurologic syndrome.” The first author of the study published in The Lancet wrote that “there is simply no good evidence to suggest that [leucovorin] will help most children with autism or related conditions.”

Tylenol orders for pregnant women visiting the ER “fell 10%, corresponding to an absolute rate change of 22.5 orders per 1,000 visits. During the initial study period, Tylenol orders plunged 16%, then reached the maximal change of 20% in the third week. No statistically significant change was noted in ED Tylenol use among non-pregnant women, nor among the comparators, regardless of pregnancy status.” Meanwhile, “new outpatient leucovorin prescriptions for children rose 71% during the study period.”

The authors cautioned that “Tylenol use also generally rises in late November due to the onset of cold and influenza season, and [their] model did not account for seasonality.”