Taking paracetamol or other painkillers during pregnancy is not responsible for increase in the risk of asthma in children, finds a study of nearly 500,000 women.
Although women taking paracetamol during pregnancy are more likely to have children with asthma, painkillers are not the cause of the risk. Rather it could be the result of chronic pain that the women suffer from, say researchers.
“Our interpretation of this is that it’s less likely that drugs are responsible for the asthma. It seems another factor that we have not measured is linked to use of these drugs and asthma risk,” said lead author Seif Shaheen, Professor at the Queen Mary University of London.