A new Cochrane systematic review found that high dose aspirin can reduce migraine headache within 2 hours.
The review compared the use of aspirin to placebo or other migraine drugs including 13 studies and 4222 patients with migraine attacks. The amount of aspirin used in these studies varied between 900 - 1000 mg. Patients were randomly assigned to either a single dose of aspirin or a placebo or an active drug.
Researchers found that 24% of aspirin users were pain-free within 2 hours comapred to 11% of placebo users, aspirin also reduced the symptoms of nausea and vomiting, but aspirin plus antiemetic reduced these symptoms significantly compared with placebo. They concluded that 1000 mg of aspirin is effective for migraine relief, similar to the effect with sumatriptan.
Critics say that it is important to note that the over-the-counter standard aspirin is only 75mg and evidence has shown that regular use of aspirin may increase stomach problem or bleeding, taking high dose aspirin may increase these side effects. Also the effectiveness of aspirin may not apply to everyone as only a quarter of patients in these studies were pain-free after 2 hours.
Source : Kirthi V, Derry S, Moore RA, McQuay HJ. "Aspirin with or without an antiemetic for acute migraine headaches in adults (Review)". The Cochrane Library 2010, Issue 4
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