A study, led by Richard B. Lipton at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, assessed the efficacy and tolerability of Aspirin versus placebo for the acute treatment of a single acute attack of migraine.

A total of 401 subjects with a confirmed migraine attack were randomly treated, 201 with Aspirin ( 1000-mg single-dose ) and 200 with placebo.

The 2-hour headache response rate was 52% with Aspirin versus 34% with placebo ( P< .001 ).
Aspirin was significantly more effective than placebo for pain reduction beginning 1 hour after dosing ( P< .001 ) and continuing throughout the 6-hour evaluation period.

Significantly ( P< .05 ), more subjects were pain free from the 1-hour evaluation through the 6-hour evaluation.
Of the Aspirin-treated subjects, 20% were pain free at 2 hours versus only 6% of placebo-treated subjects.

At 24 hours, the headache recurrence rate was 21.8% for Aspirin and 27.7% for placebo.

Only 34% of aspirin-treated subjects needed rescue medication at 24 hours compared with 52% of placebo-treated subjects ( P< .001 ).

Aspirin was well tolerated, and adverse events were not significantly different between groups.

The Authors conclude: “ This study demonstrates that Aspirin is safe and effective for treatment of acute migraine in appropriately selected patients.”

Lipton RB et al, Headache 2005; 45: 283-292

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