MDNN: Acetaminophen Linked to ADHD, ASD, New DMT Recommendations for MS, and Resources for Managing Burnout

Hi, I’m Matt Hoffman, I’m Jenna Payesko, and this is MD Magazine News Network—it’s clinical news for connected physicians.

As if pregnancy wasn’t difficult enough, new study results have shown that prolonged use of the common over-the-counter medicine acetaminophen has been linked to a 30% increase in the relative risk of ADHD and a 20% increase in the relative risk of ASD, compared to those that were not exposed to acetaminophen during pregnancy. While the results are troubling, author Ilan Matok, PhD, said that the team believes their findings should not alter current practice and women should not avoid the use of short-term acetaminophen when clinically needed.

At the American Academy of Neurology’s 70^th annual meeting, the organization issued 30 new recommendations for disease-modifying therapy for multiple sclerosis, recommending the start of DMTs early on, before the disease has progressed. The update to the 2002 guidelines included input from patients with MS. Lead author Alexander Rae-Grant told MD Magazine that “all through this process they were kind of an important in what we did and what we delivered. I certainly want to emphasize that was very important—and a new thing,” which resulted in limited instances of non-consensus recommendations and a reformed perspective on managing DMT care.

The American Academy of Family Physicians announced a new Well-Being Planner for members of the organization to help manage stressors and help address burnout in primary care. The AAFP also shared more than 100 resources with the National Academy of Medicine’s Clinician Well-Being Knowledge Hub. Clif Knight, MD, the AAFP's senior vice president for education, said “the planner is designed to make individual tactics more efficient to commit to, follow up and track.”

That’s great news for the fight against physician burnout. And now, for our weekly segment FDA Roundup, let’s go over to my alter ego, Gina Payesko, across the room.

Thanks Jenna. The FDA had a busy week. Among a bevy of approvals, the agency green lit both Medtronic’s IN.PACT Admiral Drug-Coated Balloon, and Surmodics, Inc.’s .018” Low-Profile PTA balloon dilation catheter. It also approved the first generic version of miglustat for mild to moderate type 1 Gaucher disease; tolvaptan, the first treatment to slow kidney function decline in patients with ADPKD; OK’d a new indication for Trelegy Ellipta to include airflow obstruction in COPD; and granted premarket approval to the ThinPrep Integrated Imager for pap testing.

The FDA also accepted a BLA for the 0.5 mL dose of the influenza vaccine to include children ages 6 to 35 months, designated Pfizer’s meningococcal group B vaccine as a Breakthrough Therapy, and issued a warning related to lamotrigine’s risk of causing HLH, a rare immune system reaction. Back to you guys.

For these stories and more, visit us at mdmag.com. I’m Matt Hoffman, and I’m Jenna Payesko. Thank you for watching.