Aspirin, like all other drugs, is a poison
BMJ 2000; 321 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.321.7270.1170 (Published 11 November 2000) Cite this as: BMJ 2000;321:1170We do not know who should be given what dose and for how long
- Martin R Tramèr, staff anaesthetist (martin.tramer@hcuge.ch)
- Division of Anaesthesiology, Geneva University Hospitals, CH-1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland
Papers p 1183
Aspirin is an old drug. Some 2000 years ago the Greeks used the bark and leaves of the willow tree (which contains salicylic acid) to relieve pain and fever. At the end of the 19th century acetyl salicylic acid started being produced on an industrial scale and aspirin soon became a widely used painkiller. In the late 1960s it was found that a single dose of aspirin irreversibly inhibits the normal aggregation of platelets by suppressing the cycloxygenase mediated synthesis of thromboxane A2. The effect of aspirin persists until newly formed platelets have been released; their biological lifespan is about nine days.
Sometimes, adverse drug reactions can be turned to advantage, and the antithrombotic effects of aspirin have been widely exploited. Aspirin has been given successfully both to healthy people and to patients with coronary artery disease to prevent myocardial infarction, to patients with acute myocardial infarction to reduce vascular mortality, to patients with atrial fibrillation to prevent stroke and systemic embolism, and to patients with a history of stroke or transient ischaemic attack to prevent further ischaemic events.1-5
It has been suggested that aspirin should be …
Log in
Log in using your username and password
Log in through your institution
Subscribe from £173 *
Subscribe and get access to all BMJ articles, and much more.
* For online subscription
Access this article for 1 day for:
£38 / $45 / €42 (excludes VAT)
You can download a PDF version for your personal record.