GungnirSniper writes:
"The Journal of the American Medical Association, Pediatrics, has found that use of acetaminophen (paracetamol) during pregnancy is associated with a higher risk for HKDs [hyperkinetic disorders] and ADHD-like behaviors in children. More than half of all mothers in the study reported acetaminophen use while pregnant.
The LA Times has a longer and lighter story about the study which reminds us 'that unchecked fevers have been associated with a number of poor health outcomes in babies, including lowered IQs.'
Led by neuropsychologist Miriam Cooper of the University of Cardiff in Wales, the group wrote that without more details on how acetaminophen might lay the foundations for later ADHD, and when and in whom it is most likely to boost risk, the current findings should be interpreted cautiously and should not change practice.
For pregnant women, the study underscores that, even when a medication is billed as safe, the safest route is to take it as rarely as possible and at the lowest effective dose, said UCLA obstetrician Dr. Daniel Kahn, a maternal-fetal health specialist who was not involved in the study.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't?"
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday February 26 2014, @06:50PM
The pregnancy risk is probably overstated, the principal risk factor to the fetus of aspirin use during pregnancy is Reye's syndrome, however this is merely speculative at this point, because aspirin association with Reye's syndrome, has ONLY been associated with aspirin consumption by children with viral illness, but Reye's also occurs in the absence of aspirin use and has also associated with Tylenol.
Aspirin readily crosses the placental barrier. This is the principal origin of the categorization, not any actual studies showing real risk to the fetus.
The interesting thing about aspirin is not JUST that it is good for so many different things, but if it were discovered today, you probably wouldn't be able to get it approved simply for the gastrointestinal risks alone.
Discussion should abhor vacuity, as space does a vacuum.