STAT (9/24, Cooney, Gaffney, Merelli, Subscription Publication) reports, “Federal health officials are telling Americans no, they shouldn’t take Tylenol during pregnancy for fear of autism and yes, they should try a drug used in cancer care to treat children who have developed autism. The medical world disagrees.” APA CEO and medical director Marketa Wills, MD, said, “We were actually pretty alarmed by some of the output that was coming from the administration.” And “until more research is conducted, Wills recommends that doctors rely on professional societies, peer-reviewed research in medical journals, and resources like UpToDate and the Washington Manual for guidance on how to talk with patients.” Meanwhile, “despite the FDA’s unusual reapproval of leucovorin as a potential treatment for speech-related autism symptoms, there is not enough evidence for any doctor to recommend the drug to a patient in any scenario, Wills said.” She remarked, “We’re years away from a recommendation for that type of intervention.”

Related Links:

— “Trump’s ‘tough it out’ to pregnant women meets wave of opposition by medical experts,” Elizabeth Cooney, Theresa Gaffney, and Annalisa Merelli, STAT, September 24, 2025

HealthDay (9/24, Gotkine) reports a study found that “for children at federally qualified health centers implementing behavioral health integration, encounters with a behavioral health clinician (BHC) and psychotropic prescriptions are associated with improved psychosocial symptoms.” Researchers observed that among 942 unique children at federally qualified health centers, “57.5 percent received any type of treatment and 42.5 percent were in the control group. The researchers found that the 17-item Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC-17) scores were 1.51 points lower among children in the treatment group after having at least one encounter with a BHC compared with the control group. PSC-17 scores were 2.21 points lower among children in the treatment group after they received a psychotropic prescription compared with the control group. There was no significant change in scores among children with at least one community health worker encounter.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Behavioral Health Integration Can Improve Psychosocial Health of Children,”Elana Gotkine, HealthDay, September 24, 2025

MedPage Today (9/23, George) reports, “Drinking any amount of alcohol increased dementia risk, data from a combined observational and genetic study suggested.” Researchers observed that “light alcohol consumption was associated with low dementia risk in observational analyses, and genetic analyses showed a monotonic increasing dementia risk with higher alcohol intake.” Furthermore, “Mendelian randomization suggested a causal role of alcohol consumption in increasing dementia risk with no evidence supporting a protective effect at any consumption level.” Overall, the study authors concluded the results “challenge the notion that low levels of alcohol are neuroprotective.” The study was published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The AP (9/22, Swenson, Seitz) reports that on Monday, the President promoted “unproven and in some cases discredited ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism as his administration announced a wide-ranging effort to study the causes of the complex brain disorder.” In a news conference at the White House, the President urged pregnant women not to take acetaminophen. He urged “mothers not to give their infants the drug, known by the generic name acetaminophen.” Trump “also fueled long-debunked claims that ingredients in vaccines or timing shots close together could contribute to rising rates of autism in the U.S., without providing any medical evidence.”
        
Reuters (9/22, Erman, Aboulenein, Steenhuysen) reports the President, who was accompanied by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “called for a reexamination of a link between vaccines and autism, a theory that has been repeatedly debunked, and a series of changes not grounded in science.” According to Reuters, the Administration’s advice “goes against that of medical societies, which cite data from numerous studies showing acetaminophen plays a safe role in the well-being of pregnant women.” The Administration “also suggested leucovorin, a form of folic acid, as a treatment for autism symptoms.”
        
NBC News (9/22, Lovelace Jr., Bendix, Edwards) reports the President “spoke alongside Kennedy, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya and Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.” Kennedy “said the FDA will issue a letter advising health care [professionals] that acetaminophen should be used during pregnancy only in cases of high fever, when the fever itself may pose a health risk to the fetus.” Bhattacharya also “said at Monday’s briefing that the NIH will dedicate $50 million to 13 research projects focused on identifying root causes and treatments for autism,” an effort known as the “autism data science initiative.”
        
Chief Healthcare Executive (9/23, Southwick) reports that the American Psychiatric Association “issued a statement Monday criticizing the federal government for its statements on acetaminophen.” In its statement, the APA said, “Autism is a complex disorder, and it is incorrect to imply that a handful of studies have established causation. A strong base of evidence shows that acetaminophen, when taken as directed, is safe for use during pregnancy. Any decisions around a course of treatment should be determined by a patient and their doctor.”

Related Links:

— “Trump makes unfounded claims about Tylenol and repeats discredited link between vaccines and autism,”Ali Swenson and Lauran Neergaard, AP, September 22, 2025

MedPage Today (9/19, George) reports, “A cascade of brain injuries was evident in contact sport athletes long before they had signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), autopsy data showed.” These “injuries led to neuron loss, inflammation, and vascular damage in the former athletes, most of whom played American football and all of whom died before age 51, according to” researchers. The findings were published in Nature.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)