Correlation or Causation: Discovered Links Between Tylenol and Autism

Some people have the pretense that women who take Tylenol during pregnancy cause their baby to develop autism. A recent study claims that this trend may be more correlation than causation. As per The National Society of Autism, autistic individuals may experience pregnancy pain differently when to an un affected individual, hence they are more likely to take Tylenol to remedy the pain. Due to the fact that autism is a highly heritable trait, one can see how this misconception could develop in other studies. The article claims that the only way to definitively prove that Tylenol is safe to take during pregnancy would be highly unethical and impractical. With this being said, the article does make the claim that there is no scientific data supporting the idea that Tylenol causes autism. Overall, the conclusion is that evidence so far suggests Tylenol does not cause autism, but research is still ongoing, and confusion exists because different studies have produced mixed results.