Background: Migraines are one of the most common types of headache with higher prevalence in women (18%) than in men (6%), almost half of whom are undiagnosed or undertreated. Treatment of migraine can be acute or preventive, but it often involves both types of therapy. There are three analgesics indicated as antimigraine medicines for acute attacks in adults on the World Health Organization Essential Medicines List (WHO EML): acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), ibuprofen and paracetamol. Objective: To evaluate efficacy and safety of analgesics indicated for migraine in adults on the World Health Organization Essential Medicines List (WHO EML), based on available evidence from systematic reviews (SRs) of randomized controlled trials. Methods: Four databases were searched: Embase, MEDLINE, CDSR and DARE up to 16. February 2016. Systematic reviews, which searched for efficacy and safety of ASA, ibuprofen and/or paracetamol compared to placebo and/or active comparator for treatment of migraine in adults, were included. Two review authors independently screened studies for inclusion and extracted data from the included SRs. The methodological quality of SRs was assessed using the AMSTAR tool. Results: Twelve systematic reviews assessing the efficacy and safety of ASA, paracetamol and ibuprofen for adults suffering from migraines were included. Eight systematic reviews that analyze ASA came to the same conclusion that ASA was more effective than placebo in the treatment for migraine in adults. Systematic reviews in which sumatriptan was the active comparator concluded that there was no statistically significant difference in the effectiveness of ASA and sumatriptan, but that, due to a fewer number of side effects, ASA may be recommended before a triptan. Five systematic reviews that analyzed paracetamol concluded that paracetamol is significantly more effective than placebo, except for one systematic review that gives a weak recommendation for using paracetamol, because the risk of side effects is higher than the possible benefit in the treatment of acute migraine attack. Seven systematic reviews that analyzed ibuprofen have the same conclusion that ibuprofen is significantly more effective than placebo in migraine treatment in adults. Systematic reviews that also included active comparators concluded that ibuprofen is as effective as rofecoxib, a combination of ASA and metoclopramide and low doses of sumatriptan and naratriptan. Side effects of ibuprofen were mainly mild and transient, not significantly different from that of placebo. Conclusion: The analysis of the available evidence from systematic reviews of the efficacy and safety of ASA, ibuprofen and paracetamol shows that these medicines are justifiably included in the WHO EML as treatments for migraine in adults