DOI 10.1007/s10194-006-0357-4 Aspirin and tension-type headache

Abstract Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA, Aspirin) is among the most used drugs worldwide. At present, Aspirin represents a quite versatile drug employed in the control of pain symptomatologies and in situ-ations such as prevention of both ischaemic stroke and cardiovascu-lar events. Aspirin causes inhibi-tion of prostaglandin (PG) synthe-sis by inactivation of the cyclooxy-genase (COX) enzyme. ASA con-stitutes the focus of new researches explaining more widely Aspirin’s control of inflammation. The induction of the endogenous epimers lipoxins (Aspirin-triggered 15-epi-lipoxins, ATLs) represents one of the most recent achieve-ments. This particular feature of Aspirin is not shared by other NSAIDs. ASA is well known as a headache medication, figuring as a possible treatment choice in ten-sion-type headache but also in acute migraine attacks. Furthermore, a new Aspirin formu-lation with a greater rapidity of action has been introduced. In con-clusion, little information exists on the subject and more studies are required