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Acetaminophen use in pregnancy linked to child's behavioral problems

latimes.com

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Re: Acetaminophen use in pregnancy linked to child's behavioral problems

#51

Post by apr »

Coincoin wrote: post #39
marpstar wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never take acetaminophen anymore and generally only take ibuprofen, and only a few times a year. Serious question: Why do people even take acetaminophen anymore?

Apparently it works better for fever type pain than ibuprofen. When in real pain, I combine half a regular acetaminophen dose with the regular ibuprofen. Works miracle since the two have different acting mechanisms and they are safe taken together or so I've been told by my doctor. Oh, and a little caffeine will further boost the effect for some reason. But yes, acetaminophen ridden medication is dangerous, especiall…

The combination you described is essentially Excedrin, which contains acetaminophen, aspirin and caffeine. Works miracles for me.

Re: Acetaminophen use in pregnancy linked to child's behavioral problems

#52

Post by MichaelGG »

rabboRubble wrote: post #46
marpstar wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never take acetaminophen anymore and generally only take ibuprofen, and only a few times a year. Serious question: Why do people even take acetaminophen anymore?

The reason I am freaked about acetaminophen is that I suffer from migraines. The most effective OTC medicine for me is Excedrin Migraine (a combo of acetaminophen, aspirin, and caffeine). I didn’t realize that this med contained acetaminophen. I also didn’t realize that the product name Tylenol equaled acetaminophen. Only put things together when I heard about people overdosing and examined my medicine cabinet and ch…

Why are you medicating with anything without looking at what it is? Read label. If not understood, quickly look up the medications involved.

Unless they are marketed very misleadingly (possible - opiates get tons of bad press, Tylenol doesn't), seems like you have zero reason to complain. You voluntarily consumed medications without even reading through the basic info that's on the box!

Splitting into two pills? Why would that work? Presumably most people will take both, so the packaging needs to reflect that. It helps nobody except people that are aware enough to know they want the caffeine but not acetaminophen, but not to just buy such a product in the first place.

Re: Acetaminophen use in pregnancy linked to child's behavioral problems

#53

Post by kirrent »

jrowley wrote: post #22
contingencies wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. Have ibuprofen too but it apparently has nasty side effects if you take it too long. Right now I am looking at weeks, so trying to limit consumption. Was given one SAID and one NSAID but also too many side effects for my liking.

I'm a big fan of naproxen with a large glass of water.

Add a meal and a PPI and I couldn't agree more.

Re: Acetaminophen use in pregnancy linked to child's behavioral problems

#54

Post by kirrent »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #37
pessimizer wrote: post #14

What an unnecessary, garbage drug; one that's responsible for half the liver failures in the United States. Maybe a restriction on pregnant women taking it could move it behind the counter, or better, into the dimly-remembered past.

Regarding your comment on liver failure: wouldn't you need to take more than the allowed dose for this to happen?

You do. The interesting thing about paracetamol is that toxicity arises at only about 3 times the maximum daily recommended dose. For a drug which is perceived as so safe it's common for someone to continue downing them when they're in pain and become quite sick. Certainly a problem of education, not the drug itself.

Re: Acetaminophen use in pregnancy linked to child's behavioral problems

#55

Post by rand_r »

fifteenforty wrote: post #34

Anaesthesia trainee here (doctor, similar to an anesthesiology resident in US vocabulary) I've read the actual referenced paper and not the LA times piece. This type of research is hypothesis generating. As they acknowledge, this shows a correlation, not causation. The big question here is why were these women taking paracetamol/acetaminophen? Was it the drug or the cause of their pain/fever/discomfort that is more r…

Given how taxing these types of drugs are, why are opiates not an option for most people? They don't cause any long or short-term damage to organs.

Re: Acetaminophen use in pregnancy linked to child's behavioral problems

#56

Post by emn13 »

fifteenforty wrote: post #34

Anaesthesia trainee here (doctor, similar to an anesthesiology resident in US vocabulary) I've read the actual referenced paper and not the LA times piece. This type of research is hypothesis generating. As they acknowledge, this shows a correlation, not causation. The big question here is why were these women taking paracetamol/acetaminophen? Was it the drug or the cause of their pain/fever/discomfort that is more r…

Also, what they're correlating is memory of paracetamol usage, not actual usage. I'm not sure I remember if I used paracetamol the past 3 months. It may well be that more severe pain (or other) symptoms are more easily remembered, so that their "paracetamol" usage is actually correlated with severity of symptoms, and not entirely with actual usage.

Frankly, I think the summary in that article is a little irresponsible: selling your research a little is normal, but this really asks to be misinterpreted.

Edit, the article summary I'm referring to is:

Children exposed to acetaminophen prenatally are at increased risk of multiple behavioral difficulties, and the associations do not appear to be explained by unmeasured behavioral or social factors linked to acetaminophen use insofar as they are not observed for postnatal or partner’s acetaminophen use. Although these results could have implications for public health advice, further studies are required to replicate the findings and to understand mechanisms.

Re: Acetaminophen use in pregnancy linked to child's behavioral problems

#57

Post by paulajohnson »

fifteenforty wrote: post #34

Anaesthesia trainee here (doctor, similar to an anesthesiology resident in US vocabulary) I've read the actual referenced paper and not the LA times piece. This type of research is hypothesis generating. As they acknowledge, this shows a correlation, not causation. The big question here is why were these women taking paracetamol/acetaminophen? Was it the drug or the cause of their pain/fever/discomfort that is more r…

fifteenforty buries one of the biggest potential issues in his 4th para, so I'm going to highlight it: its not clear if this correlation was found post-hoc or not. If you measure 10 factors and 10 outcomes then you have a potential 100 different correlations. If you assume that any correlation where p<0.05 is significant then you are going to get 5 "significant" correlations just by chance. The summary talks about how they didn't find correlations with acetaminophen before and after pregnancy, so that's 3 distinct factors just there.

Re: Acetaminophen use in pregnancy linked to child's behavioral problems

#58

Post by hannob »

marpstar wrote: post #36
rabboRubble wrote: post #33

Acetaminophen is one of the more dangerous over the counter drugs available. It is right up there with alcohol for causing liver failure. http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/liver-failure/... The tricky thing with acetaminophen is that it is included in products without adequate warning. If I'm sick, I have a headache and take 2 tylenol, plus cold medicine, plus whatever, and BAM I've killed my liver becaus…

I never take acetaminophen anymore and generally only take ibuprofen, and only a few times a year. Serious question: Why do people even take acetaminophen anymore?

Ibuprofen isn't free of side effects either.

My understanding was that the biggest risk of Acetaminophen is that it's easy to overdose and it's relatively safe when one knows that and stays well below the safety limits (and likely with less side effects than ACC and Ibuprofen).

But the bottom line is probably that all painkillers have risks and one should avoid taking too much of them and consult a doctor if one takes them on a regular basis.

Re: Acetaminophen use in pregnancy linked to child's behavioral problems

#60

Post by fifteenforty »

kchoudhu wrote: post #59

So: pregnant women can't do ibuprofen, and they can't do acetaminophen. What's left for them?

They shouldn't take ibuprofen, but this research is extremely poor quality and shouldn't change practice regarding acetaminophen. That's not to say that someday the results may not be confirmed, but right now it's not worth getting worried about.

Edit: I shouldn't say it's poor quality research. It's misleading reporting.

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