Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Acetaminophen use in pregnancy linked to child's behavioral problems

latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–86 of 86 posts

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

#81

Post by emn13 »

m_eiman wrote: post #66
emn13 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 irresponsibl…

what they're correlating is memory of paracetamol usage, not actual usage. According to the article: "Finally, the authors of the study acted to avoid a common problem with research that links adverse pregnancy outcomes to certain medications: that women whose children have some identifiable problem are more likely to recall taking medications during pregnancy. The current study asked women when they were pregnant ab…

But they asked during pregancy what their medicine use was up to three months ago. For a relatively mundane task like taking paracetamol, I think it's reasonable to question how reliable memory is at that point. Especially since this may be a stressful time with lots of things going on - I can imagine that a pill to make a headache go away is easily forgotten. Or: was that 2 or five months ago?

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

#82

Post by douche »

jbandela1 wrote: post #80
douche wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any particular reason not to take aspirin instead? I've pretty much never taken anything else. Probably I'm wrong, but it seemed less dangerous than ibuprofen or Tylenol.

Basically, you can't take aspirin at anti-inflammatory doses without getting a lot of side effects. Ibuprofen is a much better anti-inflammatory.

Ah, I wasn't thinking about the inflammation - just as a pain-killer. Ice, elevation, and if you can't do that, compression, have been my gotos for sprain-related swelling.

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

#83

Post by DanBC »

rand_r wrote: post #55
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.

This site talks about the problems of opioids for long term pain.

https://rcoa.ac.uk/faculty-of-pain-medicine/opioids-aware

The medical community tends not to talk about addiction, but tolerance.

People prescribed opiates for long term pain develop a tolerance for those opioids, and thus need more to get the same pain relief effect.

Those patients then end up on very high doses of multiple opiates (which is almost certainly causing them harm, and poses significant risk of suicide, or accidental death (of them or people around them)) and still in pain.

People with long term pain deserve better treatment - rapid access to pain management clinics; access to the wide variety of meds combined with psychological therapy and home adaptations. And, yes, opioids if those are the right choice.

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

#84

Post by DanBC »

wahern wrote: post #30
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.

The amount and duration needed to see side effects with ibuprofen is much more compared to acetaminophen. Look at the actual research and the amounts and durations studied. Ibuprofen is ridiculously safe if you're outside particular known risk groups, and often even then. Generalized side effects like hearing loss are far preferable to, e.g., the deaths that acetaminophen regularly causes. But AFAIU hearing loss is e…

> The pain is still excruciating, though. 24/7.

> He [...] has been eating ibuprofen like candy for the entire time

That's not a ringing endorsement for this wonder drug.

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

#85

Post by figgis »

jinpa_zangpo wrote: post #74
kchoudhu wrote: post #59

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

There are non-drug methods of dealing with pain.

Can you expand on what non-drug methods you are speaking about? And whether you are speaking about immediate relief or long term relief? These drugs used are usually used for immediate pain.

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

#86

Post by wahern »

DanBC wrote: post #84
wahern wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount and duration needed to see side effects with ibuprofen is much more compared to acetaminophen. Look at the actual research and the amounts and durations studied. Ibuprofen is ridiculously safe if you're outside particular known risk groups, and often even then. Generalized side effects like hearing loss are far preferable to, e.g., the deaths that acetaminophen regularly causes. But AFAIU hearing loss is e…

> The pain is still excruciating, though. 24/7. > He [...] has been eating ibuprofen like candy for the entire time That's not a ringing endorsement for this wonder drug.

I never said it was a wonder drug. Ibuprofen isn't a cure-all.

The pain in his feet comes from the severe arthritis. Ibuprofen only helps to moderate it a little. AFAIU, for something like arthritis ibuprofen is much more effective than acetaminophen, and safer than naproxen for prolonged use.

But it's so severe that significant relief could only come from serious pain medication, which he refuses. He's seen too many people become addicted. The stress levels from the pain probably aren't doing his body any favors, but it's his decision.

Post reply on HN