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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

by emn13 10y ago

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.

m_eiman 10y ago
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 about their medication use, and then — seven years after her child’s birth — asked her to assess her child’s emotional and social well-being and report a range of problematic behaviors."
- emn13 10y ago
  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?

by emn13 10y ago

m_eiman 10y ago

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 about their medication use, and then — seven years after her child’s birth — asked her to assess her child’s emotional and social well-being and report a range of problematic behaviors."

emn13 10y ago
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?