Tylenol & Autism: The Peripartum Risk We’re Missing with Dr. William Parker

Credit: Med MAPS

‘In this conversation, Dr. William Parker makes a case that the highest-risk window isn’t pregnancy alone—it’s the peripartum period (around birth, before discharge). He argues that, in susceptible infants, acetaminophen exposure during this window may account for a large share of cases—on the order of ~40–55%—and explains why standard analyses can miss the signal when exposure × susceptibility are treated like “confounders.”’

What you’ll hear:

• Why peripartum exposure deserves primary focus
• How susceptibility (genetics • epigenetics • environment) changes risk
• The stats mistake: interaction ≠ confounding
• Practical implications for L&D, nursery, and newborn teams