• Plos One · Jan 2013

    Misuse and dependence on non-prescription codeine analgesics or sedative H1 antihistamines by adults: a cross-sectional investigation in France.

    • Anne Roussin, Annabelle Bouyssi, Lucie Pouché, Laure Pourcel, and Maryse Lapeyre-Mestre.
    • Equipe de Pharmacoépidémiologie, UMR1027 INSERM- Université de Toulouse III, Toulouse, France ; Centre d'Evaluation et d'Information sur la Pharmacodépendance (Addictovigilance Centre), Service de Pharmacologie Clinique, Hôpitaux de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
    • Plos One. 2013 Jan 1; 8 (10): e76499.

    BackgroundGiven the growing worldwide market of non-prescription drugs, monitoring their misuse in the context of self-medication represents a particular challenge in Public Health. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of misuse, abuse, and dependence on non-prescription psychoactive drugs.MethodDuring one month, in randomly solicited community pharmacies, an anonymous questionnaire was offered to adults requesting paracetamol (control group), codeine combined with paracetamol in analgesics, or sedative H1 antihistamines. Responses about misuse (drug use not in agreement with the Patient Information Leaflet) abuse (excessive drug use having detrimental consequences), and dependence (established according to questions adapted from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition criteria) on psychoactive drugs were compared to those of the paracetamol control group.Results295 patients (mean age 48.5 years, 68.5% of women) having used one of the studied drugs during the previous month were included. Misuse and dependence to codeine analgesics concerned 6.8% and 17.8% of the patients exposed to these drugs, respectively, (n = 118), which was significantly higher than for paracetamol. 19.5% had used codeine analgesics daily for more than six months. Headache was the most frequent reason for persistent daily use. A high prevalence of persistent daily users of sedative H1 antihistamines was also observed. Whereas these drugs are recommended only for short treatment courses of occasional insomnia, 72.2% of the participants having taken doxylamine (n = 36) were daily users, predominantly for more than six months.ConclusionsResults on misuse and dependence on non-prescription codeine analgesics suggest that chronic pain, in particular chronic cephalalgia, requires better medical care. In addition, as for hypnotics on prescription, persistent use of doxylamine for self-medication is not justified until an acceptable benefit-risk ratio for chronic sleep disturbance is shown by clinical data.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.