Migraine is a complex condition with a wide variety of symptoms. For many people the main feature is a painful headache. Other symptoms include feeling sick, vomiting, disturbed vision, and sensitivity to light, sound, and smells.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are used to treat migraine headaches. One NSAID is naproxen. On 22 May 2013, we looked for clinical trials where naproxen was used to treat migraine headache. We found six good quality studies with about 2700 people.

Naproxen was more effective than placebo for relieving migraine headache in adults, but only weakly so. From having headache pain described as moderate or severe, about 2 in 10 people (17%) were pain-free at two hours when treated with naproxen. However, about 1 in 10 (8%) were pain-free at two hours when treated with placebo . Almost 5 in 10 had some headache relief with naproxen, and 3 in 10 with placebo . Naproxen is not as good as some other medicines such as ibuprofen or sumatriptan. More dizziness, tingling sensations ( paraesthesia ), sleepiness (somnolence), nausea, indigestion (dyspepsia), dry mouth, and abdominal discomfort were reported with the 825 mg dose. These effects were generally of mild to moderate severity and rarely led to withdrawal from the studies.

Naproxen is not a good drug for treating migraine at the doses of 500 mg or 825 mg used in the studies we found.