"During the past few months, President Trump and his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., have made sweeping, thinly evidenced claims that Tylenol (acetaminophen) in pregnancy is linked to autism and that SSRIs (antidepressants) might be linked to fetal damage. In the case of Tylenol, the few research studies that claim to find a link either don't control for confounding variables or find that the link disappears when they do; the drug has also been safely prescribed to children for decades. And scientists actually have studied SSRIs in pregnancy fairly extensively."
"But while these two types of drugs have been widely studied, that's more the exception than the norm. In fact, most clinical trials and drug studies explicitly exclude people who are pregnant. Because of this information vacuum, untold numbers of pregnant people forego treatments that could alleviate pain and real harm out of fear that it might potentially harm their fetuses."
Public figures recently claimed that acetaminophen in pregnancy is linked to autism and that SSRIs might harm fetuses. Studies claiming a Tylenol link often fail to control for confounders or lose the association when controls are applied, and acetaminophen has long been safely prescribed to children. SSRIs have been studied in pregnancy more extensively, but those examples are exceptions. Most clinical trials and drug studies explicitly exclude pregnant people, creating an information vacuum. As a result, many pregnant people forgo beneficial treatments, and clinicians lack evidence to guide care. Research inclusion must change to protect pregnant people through evidence.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]