Aspirin jab may beat migraine

 
Developed by researchers at the University of California in San Francisco, the new jab contains a high dose (one gram) of the painkiller, more than 10 times the amount most people would take to soothe a normal headache or joint pain.

Their research showed that pumping high doses of liquid aspirin into the blood can reduce pain in patients struck down by migraines that are so severe they end up needing hospital treatment.

The scientists now hope that the therapy can be used more widely to help thousands more sufferers with less severe headaches. It could also lead to substantial savings as aspirin costs around a third of the price of more expensive migraine pills, known as triptans.
The treatment was given to 168 patients aged from 18 to 75 who had been admitted to hospital for severe attacks made worse by medication overuse.

Researchers gave these patients five doses of injected aspirin and measured their pain on a scale of one to 10. Those scoring one to three had mild headaches, four to seven were moderate and eight to 10 severe. During the treatment period, patients said they had a significant decline in pain.