Paracetamol is one of the treatments that have always been considered safe during pregnancy. A few years ago, however, studies began to be published that related their consumption with a higher risk of asthma in childhood and even with other lung disorders.
A recent study comes to add a little more wood to the fire, since it concludes that the children of mothers who take paracetamol during pregnancy are more at risk of having a worse neuronal development.
The study has been carried out by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. To carry it out, they collected data on all Norwegian women who had children between 1999 and 2008. They were asked to report on the use of paracetamol at week 17, at 30 and after 6 months after delivery. Of all of them, the data of 48,631 children were used. Of these, 2,919 same-sex sibling couples were used to adjust genetic variables and family factors (that developmental problems were not due to inherited genetic factors or the type of life they led). Then they studied the children when they were 3 years old.
In the study they tried to know how paracetamol affected psychomotor development, the expression of behavioral problems and how children lived through these problems and temperament. The researchers saw that children who had been exposed to paracetamol for more than 28 days had a worse development of gross motor skills, of communication, a worst behavior and higher activity levels. Children who were exposed to a short-term paracetamol (between 1 and 27 days) also had a worse motor development, but the effects were less than when taken for a longer period.
Then they wanted to compare this worse development with the use of ibuprofen during pregnancy, to know if the problems could be due to other issues and not to paracetamol, and they realized that the same did not happen with this drug. However, this does not mean that it is safer, since as we have commented in Babies and more, the use of anti-inflammatory drugs could increase the risk of abortion, among other risks.
Hedvig Nordeng, author of the study, commented on the following:
Our results reinforce the concern about prolonged use of paracetamol during pregnancy as it can have an adverse effect on the child's development, although it is also necessary to say that occasional use during shorts is probably not harmful to the fetus ... it cannot be assumed that there is a causal relationship between the use of paracetamol during pregnancy and adverse effects in children since this is an epidemiological study.
In other words, that it is not a sufficiently reliable investigation to ensure that paracetamol can cause problems of neuronal development, since it would be necessary to demonstrate that there is a cause and effect relationship and that further studies are necessary to corroborate its conclusions. or refute them. Until then, we will continue saying the usual: if it can be avoided, Ideally, do not take any medication during pregnancy.
By the way, raise your hand the one who did not take paracetamol during pregnancy ... wow, what few hands I see. Hopefully they will soon find a safer alternative, if there is one, and until then there will be pull more traditional remedies to control pain or fever.
