Stroke prevention:
For stroke prevention, men are not recommended to use aspirin but women with a risk of ischemic stroke are recommended to use aspirin if the benefit outweighs the risk of harm.
Aspirin as analgesia:
Aspirin relieves headaches better in combination with other analgesics than using aspirin alone: A double-blind, randomized clinical study with nonprescription pain medication for the treatment of headaches compared the effectiveness of a fixed combination of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), paracetamol (PAR, also known as acetaminophen), and caffeine (CAF) or placebo (PL) over single substances in 1734 patients. Study participants were randomized to one of 5 treatments (2 tablets of 250 mg ASA + 200 mg PAR + 50 mg CAF) or (2 tablets of 250 mg ASA + 200 mg PAR) or (2 tablets of 500 mg ASA) or (2 tablets of 500 mg PAR) or (2 tablets of 50 mg CAF) or placebo (2 tablets of PL). Prior to randomized treatment phase, headache episodes treated with patients usual nonprescription drug (open-label pre-phase) were recorded. Pain intensity was measured on a 100-mm visual analog scale. Pain intensity difference (PID) from start of study to after treatment was compared. Results show caffeine was not effective when used alone for headaches but was effective in combination with other analgesics mentioned. The other agents (ASA and PAR) were approximately equal in relieving headache although not as well as the triple combination. A similar time course of PID from baseline to randomized study drug was reported. For patients who took ASA+PAR+CAF combination, there was overall better pain improvement and was all around superior to the single agent therapies. The combination also took less time to reach 50% pain relief than PAR, ASA, or CAF. (7)