As patients with fibromyalgia (FM) often state to have received a variety of medication providing partial or no relief, we studied their medication use. Among 1147 patients referred to our Pain Center for chronic pain (1998-2004) who answered a standardized self administered questionnaire, 95 suffered from FM. They were asked to indicate on a list of trade names which drugs they had tried. They were also required to specify the drug efficacy. According to this last criteria 3 groups were determined in FM patients: G1 (n=57) rating one or more drug as effective; G2 (n=25) rating none as effective; G3: (n=13) no answer on efficacy. Bivariate statistical procedures were used to evaluate between-group differences. The groups did not differ in demographic data, pain characteristics or duration, pain prognosis, and in the total number of drugs indicated (mean 15; min:1 max :49), the number of NSAIDs (mean 5; min:1 max:13; taken by 92% of the FM patients), antidepressants (mean 2.5; min:1 max:14; taken by 87%) and anticonvulsivants (mean 1; min:1 max: 4; taken by 58%). There was no difference in medication use between groups but patients who had tried at least one weak (81%) or/and strong (20%) opioid received statistically more drugs of all classes than the other patients (p=0.05). The satisfaction with the medication taken was very low on a VAS (mean 3/10; SD 2) in the 2 groups who rated this criteria. Antidepressants were less often cited as effective than weak opioids although they are recommended in fibromyalgia. Medication use in FM patients is high and does not always correspond to recommendations. Many different drugs are tried by these patients who nevertheless do not rate them as effective.