Do you want some aspirin? Because you seem a little fussy

‘Do you want some aspirin? Because you seem a little fussy’ secretary Pam asked her boss Michael in the popular American TV show ‘The Office’. She knew he wasn’t feeling too well and therefore asked this common question. Michael didn’t want it though, because he knew aspirin was not going to do much for his foot that he just burned as he was grilling some bacon in his office.

Aspirin makes a regular appearance in our day-to-day conversations. When you tell someone you aren’t feeling well, chances are they will ask if you want some. Aspirin is a very common part of our culture now: most people take it with them when they go out, in case they or people around them suddenly have a headache or hurt themselves. And no wonder, as it was one of the first drugs available for headache patients. The drug as we know it today was invented at the end of the 19th century. At first, headache patients needed a doctor’s prescription to get the medicine, but from 1915 on, aspirin became available to the public without a prescription.D.R. Goldberg, ‘Aspirin: turn-of-the-century miracle drug’, Science History Institute, https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/aspirin-turn-of-the-century-miracle-drug#:~:text=In%201915%20aspirin%20became%20available,household%20name%20around%20the%20world, (URL visited on October 30, 2022).

The first drug treatment specifically for migraines that headache patients could buy on their own was ergotamine. In 1926, the first ergotamine tablets were made available. The pills came in various forms, colors, and sizes and were sold under a range of brand names, and could be taken orally or rectally. In the 1960s, the drug was even sold as a nasal spray.

Soon after the invention of aspirin and ergotamine, other painkillers were produced. However, it wasn’t until the 1960s that non-prescription medicines started to be used on a large scale. How and why this was the case will be discovered in the next step.