ASPIRIN AND NSAIDS

Keep this tip handy with our ASA Cue Card.

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1. Counselling Conundrum: a real question from a patient

2. Concise Conclusion: a straight-forward patient-friendly answer 

3. Quick Wrap-up 

Clearly, there are nuances that may not be captured in this format. The goal here is to provide you with helpful counselling tips which often draw from multiple sources or those which are not commonly accessed by busy healthcare providers serving the community.

Counselling Conundrum: "I saw a warning on by bottle of baby Aspirin to speak to a healthcare provider if I am taking ibuprofen. What's the issue?"

Concise Conclusion: If you are taking baby Aspirin every day, and you also need to take a pill for pain or inflammation, make sure you take the Aspirin an hour or so before or 8 hours after any other NSAID like ibuprofen or naproxen, otherwise the Aspirin may not work as well.

Quick Wrap-up: NSAIDs bind reversibly to COX and have a higher affinity to the binding site than Aspirin, which reduces irreversible binding of Aspirin to COX, and in turn hindering its cardioprotective effect. Also keep in mind the increased bleeding risk.

Dive Deeper

1) https://www.fda.gov/media/76636/download

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