Study suggests Trump's unproven autism claims influenced care
[March 06, 2026]
By LAURA UNGAR
Last year, President Donald Trump told pregnant women not to take
Tylenol as he promoted unproven ties between the fever reducer and
autism and touted an old generic drug as a treatment for the
developmental condition.
For nearly three months after that, new research found, Tylenol orders
for pregnant women showing up in emergency rooms dropped and
prescriptions of the generic drug for children rose. This happened
despite sharp criticism of the president's message from doctor groups
saying that the drug, leucovorin, shouldn’t be broadly used for autism
and Tylenol is safe during pregnancy.
“It just shows that in our country right now, health care has been
politicized in a way that political messages are driving and impacting
care — and not always for good,” said Dr. Susan Sirota, a pediatrician
in Highland Park, Illinois, who wasn’t involved with the research.
Doctors, who published their work Thursday in The Lancet, looked at
changes in drug ordering or prescribing compared with projected trends,
or what might have happened if things had continued on the same path as
before the White House briefing.
They found that orders for Tylenol – also known by the generic names
acetaminophen and paracetamol – were 10% lower than predicted for
pregnant emergency department patients aged 15 to 44. And outpatient
prescriptions of leucovorin for children aged 5 to 17 were 71% higher
than expected during the same study period, late September to early
December.
Researchers observed no similar shifts in comparable medications,
suggesting the changes were directly tied to the briefing.
The research had limitations. For example, it didn’t capture all Tylenol
use by pregnant women because most people buy the painkiller over the
counter outside of a hospital setting.
Still, it reflected how an unconventional news conference by a political
leader could change not just patient behavior but prescribing as well,
said co-author Dr. Michael Barnett.
In past administrations, "there are lots of layers of approval and
expert consensus" before officials make big announcements about medical
topics, said Barnett, who is with Brown University School of Public
Health.
Pregnant women generally take Tylenol for pain or fever. Untreated
fevers in pregnancy, particularly in the first trimester, increase the
risk for miscarriages, preterm birth and other problems, according to
the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. Some studies have raised the
possibility that taking Tylenol in pregnancy might be associated with a
risk of autism, but many others haven’t found a connection.
[to top of second column]
|
Tylenol pills in La Habra, Calif., on Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae
C. Hong, File)
 Leucovorin is a derivative of folic
acid used for, among other things, reducing the toxic side effects
of certain chemotherapy drugs and treating a rare blood disorder. It
has also been studied for a neurological condition known as cerebral
folate deficiency and for a subset of autistic children, according
to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The pediatrics group doesn’t recommend routine use of the drug for
autistic children. Early, small-scale studies have explored its use,
“and some findings suggest potential benefit in carefully selected
cases,” the group said.
But evidence remains limited, the pediatrician group said. And in
late January, the European Journal of Pediatrics retracted a study
evaluating leucovorin as an autism treatment.
Still, after the federal announcement about the drug, Sirota said
some families in her practice asked about getting it for their
autistic children. She educated them about the evidence, told them
about the potential for side effects and didn't prescribe it.
Potential side effects include irritability, nausea and vomiting and
skin issues like dermatitis.
Sirota said it has been hard to deal with the repercussions of
government pronouncements like the ones on autism.
“It feels like a pattern with our government, right? They keep
building on these houses of cards that just fall down,” she said.
“This politicizing of medicine just in general, and moving away from
science, has been so challenging."
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support
from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science
Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely
responsible for all content.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
