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/yukon-flower Feb 21 '25

Yep. You can’t take ibuprofen when pregnant, not even during the course of labor! The only thing you can take is acetaminophen. And pregnancy isn’t exactly a soothing experience.

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u/baoo Feb 22 '25

Fentanyl it is!

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u/Nutarama Feb 22 '25

You joke, but fentanyl is actually one of the approved drugs for use in epidurals. Tiny exact doses straight into the CSF.

The actual solution mostly is structural fixes.

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u/ivorybiscuit Feb 22 '25 edited Feb 22 '25

That blew my mind when I was getting ready to give birth and I heard that in a class. And then again when I caved after hours of excruciating back labor with minimal progress and asked for the epidural.

Edit: my preference was to try unmedicated first then switch to pain relief if the situation called for it. My word choice of caved was perhaps poor for what I intended- I caved in the sense that I couldn't physically handle labor at that point so I chose, with no judgement on myself from myself or any part of my care team, to get an epidural. I just moved to one of the options I had already thought out. Apologies if my language was inferring any judgement on people getting epidurals.

I firmly believe everyone should have the choice to follow their own birth preferences and keep them and their child safe, be that medicated, unmedicated, etc. Epidurals are an incredible medical feat and people should be able to freely choose if they want them or not based on what is important to them.

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u/bewilderedfroggy Feb 22 '25

I would reframe that as "after hours of excruciating back labor with minimal progress(etc)....I got the pain relief I needed".

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u/ivorybiscuit Feb 22 '25

I hear what youre saying, but It wasn't like they denied me the epidural though. I was trying to go unmedicated and hit a point where I couldn't, but I had wonderful responsive care that I felt in control of the whole time. I got it as soon as possible after I asked for it, and they respected my decision to not have it until I asked.

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u/bewilderedfroggy Feb 22 '25

As someone who works in the area, I just feel a bit sad about the language that suggests it was some sort of moral failing on your part. I'm glad there was no epidural gatekeeping!

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u/horyo Feb 22 '25

I know you're joking but even women aren't spared from that. Opioid withdrawal happening in newborns is a sad sight.

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u/BirdieZazu Feb 22 '25

I don‘t know how it‘s in the US but you can take ibuprofen during pregnancy - just not in the last trimester. Oftentimes it‘s safer to say „you can never!“ so that they don‘t buy a packsge in the first weeks and use it later. But you could.

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u/smeIIyworm Feb 22 '25

Please don't share such harmful information. Ibuprofen should NOT be taken during any stage of pregnancy.

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u/ganzzahl Feb 24 '25

No, that's not true. There are only tenuous links to any issues for ibuprofen taken in the first half of pregnancy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK582759/