Prescriptions for a medication touted as a possible treatment for autism surged while Tylenol use among pregnant women plummeted after Trump administration officials made claims about both.
Findings from a new study suggest that doctors and patients were quick to respond after a White House news conference on autism in September.
During the briefing, federal health officials said they would update labeling for Tylenol to warn of a “possible association” with autism when taken during pregnancy. They also announced plans to approve leucovorin, also known as folinic acid, as a “potential treatment for speech-related deficits” associated with autism.
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“Don’t take Tylenol,” President Donald Trump directed expectant mothers during the briefing.
The claims were not accompanied by any new evidence and ran counter to advice from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other groups. Nonetheless the new study, published this month in the journal The Lancet, suggests that the public heeded the advice from the briefing.
Researchers assessed prescribing habits in the months before and after the news conference using an electronic health record database with information from more than 1,600 hospitals and 37,000 clinics across the nation.
In the months after the press conference, Tylenol use among pregnant patients in emergency rooms declined roughly 10%, the study found, dipping by as much as 20% in the third week.
Meanwhile, outpatient prescriptions for leucovorin among children ages 5 to 17 rose 71%, soaring as high as 113% in the second week after the briefing. About 72% of the scripts were written for children with an autism diagnosis.
“The results were astounding to me,” said Dr. Jeremy Samuel Faust, an emergency physician and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School who is an author of the study. “It can take years, even decades, for high-quality research to finally reach clinicians. Here, by using the White House, it was done overnight. Unfortunately, they’re claiming breakthroughs that simply haven’t occurred.”
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that acetaminophen, sold under the brand name Tylenol, remains the safest pain reliever and fever reducer available during pregnancy and that current evidence does not support a link with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Meanwhile, the American Academy of Pediatrics said it does not recommend routine use of leucovorin in kids with autism because there is limited evidence to support the practice.
The study authors note that their results don’t prove that the comments at the White House briefing caused the changes in medication use and they did not assess patient outcomes, but they said the findings remain significant.
“It’s not just patients who were influenced by the unconventional press conference,” said Dr. Michael Barnett, a professor of health services, policy and practice at Brown University and an author of the study. “Their doctors were either influenced themselves or pushed by patients to adopt a new practice.”
