Coated aspirin may dissolve faster and taste nicer, but a new study concludes it may be no better for the stomach than the regular variety.
The study by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine found that taking a daily aspirin roughly triples the risk of severe internal bleeding, and it doesn't matter whether the pill is plain, buffered with an agent such as chalk, or covered with a silicon-type substance known as enteric coating."With an average daily dose of one tablet or less, there appears to be no difference in the risk of major upper-gastrointestinal bleeding," lead author Judith Kelly said in a telephone interview.
The study, published in the Nov. 23 issue of The Lancet, a British medical journal, compared the aspirin-taking habits of 550 patients hospitalized for internal bleeding and 1,202 healthy people.
When it came to higher aspirin doses, taken for example by victims of arthritis, Kelly said the risk increased sixfold with plain aspirin and sevenfold with buffered ones. There was not enough data to say whether enteric aspirin was safer.
"There remains a chance that at higher doses you may get more protection" from enteric aspirin, Kelly said.
The study was conducted in Massachusetts between 1987 and 1994.
Coated aspirin long has been touted as better for the stomach. Despite the new findings, aspirinmakers are standing by their claims.
A statement from Smithkline Beecham, which makes Ecotrin, a brand of coated aspirin, said "numerous independently conducted medical studies have proven that Ecotrin causes significantly less gastric damage, including the type of gastric bleeding mentioned in this article, than both plain and buffered aspirin."
Another maker, the British subsidiary of Eli Lilly, issued a statement noting that a 1991 study at England's Nottingham University showed that taken once a day, enteric aspirin "virtually eliminated" the risk of stomach damage.