Aspirin
Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), one of the oldest over-the-counter drugs having been marketed since 1899, is the most widely used drug in the world. It has a number of important uses in medicine: It is a valuable analgesic, antipyretic, and heart-attack and stroke-preventive. It is one of the most potent anti-inflammatory agents, and is the drug of choice and mainstay of arthritis therapy. Aspirin continues to be used for relief from headaches, fevers and arthritis pain. Aspirin works as an analgesic to reduce pain, an anti-pyretic to reduce fever and an anti-inflammatory agent. Acetyl salicylic acid has been found to reduce the likelihood of strokes, reduce the likelihood of heart attacks, reduce the complications of a stroke or heart attack when administered after the cardiovascular incident, and reduce the likelihood of second heart attack. With only minimal side effects or complications, it is the most widely used pharmaceutical agent in the world, and its range of use continues to grow. Aspirin effectively reduces the risk of secondary thrombotic events in individuals who have experienced angina, myocardial infarction, peripheral artery disease, or cerebrovascular ischemia. Aspirin also may reduce the risk of initial thrombotic events in healthy individuals. For this reason, many individuals, through physician prescriptions or self-medication, take aspirin on a regular basis for the primary or secondary prevention of thrombotic disease. Aspirin has been shown to be effective in prevention of heart disease in men with several high risk clinical conditions and both men and women with hypertension. Aspirin stimulates the immune system, reduces opportunistic infections and is potentially useful as an adjunct in treating cancer, AIDS, and other immune disorders. It shows promise in treatment of Alzheimer's Disease; it is used in rheumatic fever, gout and cataracts; it provides pain relief from tendonitis, headaches, backaches, muscle strains, and other injuries. Aspirin has a specific analgesic effect in migraine headaches, a condition in which acetaminophen and ibuprofen show no activity. No other drug in the history of medicine has exhibited such an array of multifaceted therapeutic properties. The major disadvantage of aspirin therapy is gastrointestinal irritation caused by direct contact of the solid aspirin crystals and the gastric mucosa which causes gastrointestinal bleeding. Buffered aspirin tablets have been developed to reduce gastrointestinal bleeding. However, these multilayer tablets have proven to be, at times, ineffective.
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