r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Feb 21 '25

Neuroscience The risk of developing ADHD was 3 times higher among children whose mothers used the pain-relief drug acetaminophen (paracetamol) during pregnancy. The association was stronger among daughters, with the daughters of acetaminophen-exposed mothers showing a 6.16 times higher likelihood of ADHD.

https://newsroom.uw.edu/news-releases/child-adhd-risk-linked-to-mothers-use-of-acetaminophen
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u/linglingbolt Feb 21 '25

A few reasons off the top of my head (cannot verify right now, but this is based on past readings)

  • Higher risk of comorbidities like depression that can cause pain
  • higher risk of car accidents and other injuries from inattention or impulsivity
  • sitting still for long periods of time due to executive dysfunction (back pain, neck pain, headache, etc)
  • insomnia or sleep disorders
  • higher preference for physically active/demanding jobs for some
  • ADHD women have a higher risk of suffering abuse
  • higher sensitivity to minor aches that other people would be able to ignore

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u/AltC Feb 21 '25

Before I started reading your list, the one thing that came to mind was your last point. Minor things (like a mild headache) can be ignored by most. But may be a huge distraction to someone with ADHD, causing them to reach for the pain killers quicker than other. Much like most minor things that can be ignored by most, but stand out to those with ADHD.

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u/Brossentia Feb 21 '25

I've got ADHD. People... People can do stuff while they have a headache? I took Tylenol this morning and can still barely get through Solitaire, let alone anything else I should be doing.

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '25

[deleted]

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u/SimplyyBreon Feb 22 '25

Ahhh yes, my chronic overstimulation causing my chronic migraines.

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u/Brossentia Feb 23 '25

Yeah, I'm 99% sure they're migraines. A few headaches seem to disappear with basic medication, but others have additional effects besides the pain - good old light sensitivity!

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u/JonatasA Feb 21 '25

All I know is that if I am ill my body is depleted of whatever it is it needs to work.

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u/Asyran Feb 21 '25

Depends. More severe headaches cripple just about everyone equally. But neurotypical individuals have an easier time 'powering through' mild and moderate headaches. If your ADHD is inclined to hyperfocus on the headache though, even a mild one is completely debilitating. Distractability plus a hyperfixation on the distraction is a recipe for a 0 productivity day.

Also drink water. I tend to place my bottle within eye shot of my main focus or i won't drink at all. Dehydration is a big problem.

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u/Brossentia Feb 23 '25

I literally take my water bottle everywhere. It's improved my life more than almost anything else!

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u/Raibean Feb 21 '25

You may need to take ibuprofen

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u/Brossentia Feb 23 '25

Nah, ibuprofen does nothing for my headaches, generally. I should honestly talk to my GP about them in the future.

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u/JonatasA Feb 21 '25

Better not risk it.

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u/br0ck Feb 21 '25

I can't focus at all when I have bad headaches. And I don't think I have ADHD.. but some things do make me wonder.

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u/agitatedprisoner Feb 21 '25

Diet and environmental pollution are causes of headaches. Running an air filter and eating healthy foods might help avoid them. Not getting quality sleep can also cause headaches.

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u/correcthorsestapler Feb 21 '25

Hydration, too. I know if I have a migraine coming on that part of it might be from not drinking enough water.

Though, my wife has had migraines since she was a kid. Had multiple labs done. Several scans. Changed meds several times. We have filters all throughout the house. She used to be fit till an accident in her teens ended her potential career. She gained weight in her 30s but has since lost it all and is back to being healthy. And she doesn’t really eat a whole lot of junk. Despite all that she still has a migraine almost every day. Docs have been perplexed.

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u/Brossentia Feb 23 '25

That's my sister to a T. We have a family history of headaches and migraines, but she got the short end of the stick here.

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u/Psyc3 Feb 21 '25

There is a lot of different types of "headache", having one that is so incapacitating that you can't do anything isn't normal, and will have some underlying condition associated it whether medical professionals will take it seriously to diagnose it or not.

I woke up with a headache today because I feel a bit ill, I got on with my day, but I have also never had a migraine in my life as they sound horrendous.

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u/JonatasA Feb 21 '25

Sorry for asking. Is Solitaire easy? I never had the mind to even look at it, I mean it. I do word puzzles sometimes instead.

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u/Nchi Feb 21 '25

It's a simple concept to grasp, not 'easy' to win without learning it's mechanics a bit, but I managed when I was like, 8,you got this.

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u/mrningbrd Feb 21 '25

Its also luck based, my adhd ass has been playing solitaire since elementary school. It helps me focus on audio since my eyes and hands are busy

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u/Nchi Feb 21 '25

Oh right, was totally thinking about adding the possibility of unwinnable games vs free cell or whatever, forgor

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u/JonatasA Feb 21 '25

I'm the opposite. Listening to audio gives me unparallel focus. It's like being on 2 different modes.

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u/Geno0wl Feb 21 '25

Only if it is music. I can not function if it is a podcast. I can't focus on a task and a podcast at the same time.

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u/JonatasA Feb 21 '25

Thanks. I never played any card game, so I'll have to give it a try someday. Saw someone playing it on their phone the other day.

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u/Syssareth Feb 21 '25

Quick FYI: There are a lot of different rulesets for Solitaire (like, a lot), but the version most people are talking about when they talk about just plain "Solitaire" is properly called Klondike. As far as I know, it's the version with the simplest rules, so it's a good starting point.

Have fun when you get around to it!

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u/ztj Feb 21 '25

It's very easy especially if you don't get hung up on always winning. You can follow the basic rules to get as far as you want and if you can't complete it, nbd, shuffle and start again. Not every shuffle can be won. But then there are these middle-ground shuffles that can be won but likely require some clever repositioning of your overall "board" and honestly, unless you are trying to get good to win solitaire in a gambling/competitive context? It's not worth it don't bother.

Playing in the first way is a pretty relaxing way to take your mind of things. You can play very methodically.

FWIW, I play solitaire with an App by https://www.mobilityware.com and in that app you can set it up so that it only gives you deals/shuffles that have a known win condition. It may be one that requires the clever strategy I mentioned above, plus depending on exactly how you proceed you may not actually achieve the win condition anyway but I like having the substantially increased odds of winning even with my basic/relaxing methodical approach so it's my favorite solitaire app for this reason.

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u/JonatasA Feb 21 '25

if you don't get hung up on always winning.

 

So that's the tough part then.

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u/rhymeswithvegan Feb 21 '25

I have ADHD and chronic tension headaches. 24/7 pain for my entire life. I appreciate comments like yours for helping validate my struggle on the harder days.

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u/Chisignal Feb 22 '25

The way my ADHD interacts with my headaches is that I often don't realize I have one until it becomes actually debilitating, at which point I obviously can't do much stuff. If I notice it before then and take a painkiller, I usually manage to work through the day.

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u/RandomRedditReader Feb 21 '25

Any annoying pain I can't do anything about bothers the hell out of me. It's not so much that it hurts more than anyone else's pain but that I can't ignore it and just focus on it constantly or pick and poke and cause more pain or just purposefully make it more painful. It's an annoying self awareness OCD.

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u/AltC Feb 21 '25

Yes I agree. I think it just is “louder” than non adhd people, the same way an annoying background sound can make it so hard to listen to the person talking to me.

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u/RandomRedditReader Feb 21 '25

Yep, it's why I NEED a white noise maker to sleep. If I so much as hear a penny drop outside my room I'm wide awake and my heart starts racing making it impossible to quickly get back to sleep.

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u/storagerock Feb 21 '25

This is it for me, the very nature of my ADHD means less important sensory input is not getting blocked out or tagged as less important. So with my brain registering a small pain as worthy of great attention, guess what my brain directs my inflammation response to be like? Yep, go overkill, and that overkill inflammation hurts, which registers in my brain as needing lots of attention, which triggers more excessive inflammation, and that’s how you get in a spiral of chronic inflammation and pain.

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u/sambadaemon Feb 21 '25

I'm waiting on an official diagnosis, but my GP is certain I have ADHD and I actually have an extremely high pain tolerance. Weird.

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u/AltC Feb 21 '25

It’s different… I believe I have a high pain tolerance as well. But I know minor things most people can ignore are not more painful, just.. hard to not focus on… it becomes very distracting over everything else.

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u/BromoMoment Feb 22 '25

Interesting, I very recently got diagnosed with ADHD and it seems like almost every minor annoyance in my life is caused or amplified by ADHD. I've never been able to get anything done when I have a headache, but I assumed that was how it was for everyone. I don't have migraines or anything debilitating so I usually take some Tylenol or Advil and I'm fine.

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u/_Nick_2711_ Feb 22 '25

Pain is weird but simultaneously just like everything else, it’s just ‘another thing’ your brain needs to process..

Mild headache in a quiet room? It’s like a foghorn.

Broken arm but I’m having fun? It can wait until morning, the pain is barely noticeable.

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u/suddenlyshoes Feb 21 '25

Higher probability of having hypermobility/hEDS as well, which often causes chronic pain.

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u/linglingbolt Feb 21 '25

I'm not sure about the percentage of people with ADHD who have EDS, and couldn't find any studies linking them in that direction. But...

A high percentage of those with Ehlers-Danlos met the criteria for ADHD. I saw various numbers like 16%, 42%. I couldn't check how they were counting them, but one source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7882457/

A high percentage of women with ADHD do meet the criteria for various eating disorders which is often abbreviated to EDs. Binge eating disorder I think is particularly common.

The highest comorbidity with ADHD is anxiety by a long shot.

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u/ghoulthebraineater Feb 21 '25

Inflammation would be another. There's also a higher risk of inflammatory diseases in people with ADHD and autism.

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u/perennial_dove Feb 21 '25

Yes. Adhd ppl tend to have a dopamine problem. Low dopamine can cause pain. Chasing dopamine can make you accident-prone.

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u/a_statistician Feb 21 '25

higher sensitivity to minor aches that other people would be able to ignore

There's also a correlation between Ehlers Danlos and ADHD/autism in women... when your ligaments are already too stretchy or loose, and then you get pregnant, a lot of things slip and slide and hurt that normally don't. I had an induction at 37 weeks with my 2nd because I could no longer walk without my hip partially dislocating, and I took tylenol for the last 4 weeks of my first pregnancy because the hip looseness seemed to cause sciatica that had my entire leg alternating between numb and on fire.... and that was before the kid started stretching.

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u/wally-217 Feb 21 '25 edited Feb 21 '25

Adhd and ehlers-danlos/hypermobility has an extremely high comorbidity rate, something like 50% of those with adhd (specifically women iirc) also met the criteria for EDS, in some studies. And I think there was something similar the other way round.

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u/linglingbolt Feb 21 '25

It was the other way around, a high percentage of those with Ehlers-Danlos met the criteria for ADHD. I saw various numbers like 16%, 42%. I couldn't check how they were counting them, but one source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7882457/

A high percentage of women with ADHD do meet the criteria for various eating disorders which is often abbreviated to EDs. Binge eating disorder I think is particularly common.

The highest comorbidity with ADHD is anxiety by a long shot.

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u/wally-217 Feb 21 '25

That's the one. Makes more sense with hypermobility disorders being diagnosed much more frequently in women, and adhd being profoundly under diagnosed.

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u/spacelama Feb 22 '25

higher sensitivity to minor aches that other people would be able to ignore

The whole "Fibromyalgia/ASD/ADHD etc are overly sensitive to pain due to heightened nerve response" thing gets me curious. Certainly portrayed by the medical community as the patient is essentially responding to barely-existent pain triggers, but also acknowledge they only test for the types of inflammation markers they know about (after having spent decades ignoring any calls to do actual research into the mechanisms behind Fibro/CFS until long-covid came along and threatened to affect the entire population).

As to whether patients are overly sensitive - imagine someone with two broken eye sockets, a broken nose, broken jaw, broken teeth, face ripped open in several places due to being thrown to the ground head-first by a car - what sort of pain levels do you think a normal patient would be experiencing? Because I seemed to surprise the paramedic by replying "only about 7" (and 2 once the morphine kicked in).

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u/linglingbolt Feb 22 '25

Ow, sorry to hear about that.

Pain sensitivity is really hard to compare or quantify. People really do vary a lot in how they respond to different kinds of pain.

Injuries are especially tricky, because adrenaline can blunt it quite a bit. Even with a pretty bad injury, it might be a lot worse the next day. Pain often comes later, with inflammation. That's why they use those face diagrams to try and get a subjective idea of how someone's feeling. The same injury in different people could be rated as a 3, a 7 or an 11.

But in this case, I'm talking more about how well you can ignore the pain (and do something else), like reading with a tension headache. Or ignore other unwanted stimuli, like noises, smells, or uncomfortable clothes.

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u/Mkilbride Feb 22 '25

ADHD women have a higher risk of suffering abuse

What's this one about?

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u/blueberrylemony Feb 21 '25

People take Tylenol for depression? That doesn’t sound right

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u/hellomondays Feb 21 '25

Depression can cause fatigue and just general soreness from being inactive. 

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u/MozeeToby Feb 21 '25

There is actually empirical evidence that Tylenol is effective in some people for "mental" and emotional pain, which is really quite fascinating when you think about it. Whether it's the pain of rejection or simply making a difficult decision, acetaminophen appears to reduce activity in the part of the brain that processes discomfort in general as opposed to blunting physical pain directly.

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u/blueberrylemony Feb 21 '25

I had no idea. This is very interesting

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u/linglingbolt Feb 21 '25

Depression in itself seems to cause physical pain symptoms.

https://www.webmd.com/depression/physical-symptoms

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC486942/

Keep in mind that no one is totally sure how any of this (ie. depression, ADHD, pain, or acetaminophen) actually work.

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '25 edited Feb 21 '25

[deleted]

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u/MissKDC Feb 21 '25

I don’t think they’re denying the science. It’s very fair to question the way the study was done and therefore take the conclusion with a grain of salt.

As much as we’d love to say science is black and white, it’s really not. Could it be Tylenol? Yes. Could it be not be Tylenol at all due to these factors? Also yes. Could it be some mix? Yes. This one study doesn’t tell us those answers. It’s a part of a puzzle one day we hope to solve.

Def would not be taking Tylenol if I were pregnant and I didn’t really really need it though!

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u/AppTB Feb 21 '25

Sorry, I’m restate my point and back it with research and history in a few moments. Ignoring the long history of documented evidence with what about isms triggered me.

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u/MarsupialMisanthrope Feb 21 '25

Given the degree to which ADHD is underdiagnosed in women, any study that doesn’t screen participants automatically falls in the dubious science bin.

If we estimate that ADHD is as prevalent in girls and women as it is in men and boys, then over half the women who have it go undiagnosed. That’s a lot of genetically linked cases being attributed to anything other than the medical system’s ongoing failure to provide proper care to anyone who’s not a young to early middle aged, physically active, normal-weight, middle class or higher white male.

Yes, there’s a lot of documented evidence about tylenol being a drug that probably wouldn’t be OTC if it was developed today, but there’s also a lot of evidence that women and minorities get inferior medical care across the board, and ruling that out is also kind of important before we start making pregnant women’s lives even more miserable.

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u/linglingbolt Feb 21 '25

I'm not sure what you're talking about.

I was answering why/how ADHD in the mothers might lead to a higher rate of pain symptoms. Before they took any pain medicine.