Cannabis & Pregnancy - Acetaminophen & Autism - Autism Treatment? - Diabetes & Autism

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Sep 24, 2025, 7:39:40 AM (8 days ago) Sep 24

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/health/pregnancy-cannabis-marijuana-guidelines.html

Pregnant Women Should Not Use Cannabis, New Medical Guidelines Say

By Roni Caryn Rabin

Women who are pregnant, planning a pregnancy or breastfeeding should be screened for cannabis use and strongly discouraged from it, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said in new clinical guidelines published on Friday.

Cannabis use during pregnancy has been rising for years. Many women rely on the drug to cope with nausea and other pregnancy symptoms.

But the college warned that mounting evidence linked cannabis to preterm births, low birth weights and a greater need for neonatal intensive care, as well as neurocognitive and behavioral problems in children.

“Patients are often using cannabis to help with some kind of medical ailment, not recreationally — in their mind, they think it’s a more natural way to deal with a medical problem,” said Dr. Melissa Russo, an author of the new guidance.

“But there are lots of natural things that are not safe,” Dr. Russo said. There are no studies demonstrating that cannabis is effective for pregnant or lactating women, she added, “and research now shows there are potential adverse effects.”

The college warned against blood or urine tests for cannabis screening. Instead, it urged physicians to talk with women about their habits, and to encourage them to stop using marijuana as soon as possible while offering alternative therapies for medical ailments.

The screening should be universal in an effort to avoid bias and racism, the college said. It noted that pregnant Black and Hispanic women are four to five times as likely as white women to be tested for drug use. Black women are almost five times as likely to be reported to child protective services for suspected drug use.

The new guidelines say that cannabis should be discouraged among breastfeeding women, but that breastfeeding should continue even with use of the drug because the benefits most likely outweigh the potential risks.
© 2025 The New York Times Company

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https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/09/22/nx-s1-5550153/trump-rfk-autism-tylenol-leucovorin-pregnancy

Trump blames Tylenol for autism. Science doesn't back him up

Jon Hamilton

In a White House press conference Monday, President Trump and several deputies said the Food and Drug Administration would be updating drug labeling to discourage the use of acetaminophen by pregnant women, suggesting a link between the common painkiller and autism.

Federal officials also said they would be changing the label for leucovorin, a form of vitamin B typically used in conjunction with cancer treatment, to enable its use as a treatment for autism. And they added that state Medicaid programs, in partnership with the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, would cover this use.

The suite of changes was announced despite a notable lack of clear scientific evidence to support these moves. The changes were presented as part of what the administration said was its commitment to identify the root causes of autism, diagnoses of which have increased in recent years.

Flanked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid head Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Trump pinned substantial blame for rising autism rates on the common painkiller, which is also known by its brand name, Tylenol.

"Taking Tylenol is not good — I'll say it: It's not good," he said, suggesting without evidence that communities without access to the medicine have "no autism," while in others, autism now affects 1 in 12 boys. (An estimated 1 in 31 children in the U.S. are diagnosed with autism.) Trump discouraged giving acetaminophen to babies, as well. (He also suggested that vaccines and their frequency may be a culprit in causing autism, an oft-repeated claim that has been debunked by decades of research.)
© 2025 npr

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/well/leucovorin-autism-fda.html

What Is Leucovorin, the Medicine Being Approved for Autism Treatment?

By Christina Caron

Dr. Marty Makary, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, announced on Monday that the agency would be modifying the label of a relatively obscure medicine so that “it can be available for children with autism.”

He was referring to leucovorin, or folinic acid, a modified version of vitamin B9, also known as folate — which is naturally found in beans, leafy greens, eggs, beets and citrus.

Folate helps the body make red blood cells and is important for cell growth. It’s especially crucial during early pregnancy to lower the risk of major birth defects in a baby’s brain or spine. Studies suggest that folate levels can affect our health in various ways, and scientists are researching what role folate plays in depression, dementia, heart disease and autism.

Some people have antibodies that interfere with how folate is transported within the body, and small studies suggest that a number of people with autism — in some cases up to 75 percent — may have these antibodies.

In a Federal Register notice filed on Monday, the F.D.A. said it was approving leucovorin tablets for people with “cerebral folate deficiency,” based on a review of studies from 2009 to 2024 that found that they “improve certain symptoms.” The agency, noting that more studies were needed, cited one study that compared 40 people on the medication and 40 on a placebo; those who took the medication showed “substantial improvement” of the deficiency symptoms.

The medicine has been used off-label to treat people diagnosed with cerebral folate deficiency for about two decades.

Symptoms of cerebral folate deficiency usually begin to show up around the age of 2 when children start to experience speech difficulties, intellectual disabilities and, in some cases, seizures. They may also have tremors and difficulty controlling their muscle movements.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03024-5

Gestational diabetes linked to autism in study

Rachel Fieldhouse

Last week, a study involving more than nine million pregnancies reported that children whose mothers had gestational diabetes during pregnancy had a higher chance of developing attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism than did children whose mothers didn’t have the condition.

The study, presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Vienna, is under review at a peer-reviewed journal. It is not the first to link gestational diabetes to neurodevelopmental disorders in children, but it is one of the largest. Researchers pooled results from 48 studies across 20 countries, finding that children born to people with gestational diabetes had lower IQ scores, a 36% higher risk of ADHD and a 56% higher risk of autism spectrum disorders. Estimates suggest the prevalence of autism in the general population is one in 127 people1 and between 3-10%2 of children and teenagers have ADHD.

The latest results mirror those of another meta-analysis3 published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal in June, which included 56 million mother–child pairs and found that all types of diabetes in pregnancy, including type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes, increase the risk of the baby developing ADHD and autism. But none of these studies have been able to show that diabetes during pregnancy causes these conditions. “There’s no doubt that there is a signal here, but certainly further research is required,” says Alex Polyakov, an obstetrician and researcher at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

Long a topic of research, the causes of autism have been thrust into the spotlight by the administration of US President Donald Trump. On Sunday, while speaking at the memorial for conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Trump said: “I think we found an answer to autism. How about that?”