A 13-Year National Monitoring Study to Assess Narcotic Prescriptions and Indications (2007-2019).

Introduction: Analgesics are among the most widely used drugs worldwide. This study describes the population treated with narcotic analgesics, their therapeutic indications and how the data have evolved over a decade.

Methods: A cross-sectional, national, multicentre survey study was conducted that included surveys taken every year from 2007 to 2019 in a national sample of 1500 randomly selected dispensing pharmacies.

[Community pharmacists, students in pharmacy, and requests of codeine-based medicines: Observational study].

Introduction: The case of purple drank motivated a study to investigate the way community pharmacists and students in pharmacy managed, with patients, the abuse risk of non-prescription codeine-based medicines.

Methods: This prospective descriptive study was conducted, between September and October 2016, within a 170 community pharmacies network of Aquitaine and 437 pharmacy students of Bordeaux university (fourth, fifth and sixth year students, without selection of the pharmacies where they were able to work). It used a common survey questionnaire, which was sent to students through their own "Facebook" (Facebook Inc.

[From psychoactive medicines to addictovigilance in French Public Health Code (1990-2017)].

Addictovigilance in the French Public Health Code, in the section related to poisonous substances, refers to a monitoring system developed since 1990: control of psychoactive substances and products, with medicinal use or not, was completed by a specific system focused on evaluation and information on pharmacodependance in 1999. The French medicines agency (Agence du médicament) created in 1993 was involved in this monitoring system; pharmacodependance evaluation was added by law to the missions of the agencies that followed: the Agence française de sécurité sanitaire des produits de santé missions (AFSSAPS, 1998) and the Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé (ANSM, 2011). "Addictovigilance" first appears in French Law in 2017 whereas it was used by pharmacodependance centers and AFSSAPS since 2007.

Parachuting psychoactive substances: Pharmacokinetic clues for harm reduction.

Background: Parachuting, also called bombing, is a way to ingest psychoactive substances wrapped into cigarette paper, toilet paper, etc. There is little data describing parachuting in terms of substances use, context of use and, most importantly, the motivations for using such wrappers, although some authors hypothesized that parachute could be used for pharmacokinetic reason. However, inconsistently, some authors report that parachutes are used for sustained-release whereas others report that users are looking for an immediate effect.

[Cooperation according to French Law "hospital, patients, health and territories": Pharmacists' involvement in Aquitaine region].

Background: In 2009, the French Act "Hospital, Patients, Health and Territories" (loi "Hôpital, Patients, Santé et Territoires") reorganized the outpatient care pathway and defined missions aimed at improving cooperation between pharmaceutical and medical professionals. Five years later, we conducted a survey among community pharmacists in order to assess the appropriation of these missions and the way cooperation was implemented. We also aimed to investigate factors that could hamper or ease the development of these activities in order to identify actions needed to improve pharmacists' involvement.

[Exception drugs status: specific characteristics and the role in the proper use of drugs].

Background: In 1994, the French health care system established a special status for certain costly drugs reimbursed for ambulatory use: exception drugs. Drugs with this status are reimbursed only when prescribed for specified indications. The purpose of this study was to identify the specific characteristics of drugs with the exception status, and to understand the role of this status in proper use of drugs.

Medicines submitted to narcotics regulations in France, 1992-2007.

The objective was to study the current narcotics regulations which are the most restrictive regarding prescription and dispensation practice in France, and their evolution over the period 1992-2007. This is an example of regulation in a European member state regarding medicines with a risk of abuse or dependence. Narcotics regulations were studied in the French public health code.

[Charter of medicines promotion and rational use by physicians].

The charter of medicines promotion recently adopted by France intends to constrain information given by sales representatives to the field of good prescription practices. Over a 11 year period (1994 to end 2004), 362 interdictions of promotional supports have been decided by the director of the French Medicines Agency. This accounts for 0.

[Orphan drugs in France (2001-2005): access to information and characteristics].

In year 2000, two european regulations have been adopted in order to increase the availability of orphan drugs in the European Union. To describe the current orphan drug market in France, a cross sectional analysis was conducted, five years later, taking account of publicly available informations, including designation, registration, reimbursement. These informations are mostly available on the Internet.

Benzodiazepine use in patients hospitalized in a department of internal medicine: frequency and clinical correlates.

Purpose: Misuse and overuse of benzodiazepines (BZD) are common. Several studies have shown that benzodiazepines are frequently used in hospitalized patients, but fewer studies have been conducted to investigate whether BZD use increases during the hospital stay or whether patients have already taken BZD before admission.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of benzodiazepine use in hospitalized patients and to determine characteristics associated with this use.

[The French system of evaluation of dependence: establishment in a legal system].

The French system of evaluation of dependence has been defined in the French Public Health Code by decree 99-249 of 31 March 1999. It was created by health authorities 10 years earlier and concerns dependence and abuse, which were previously just submitted to control under the designation of non-conforming use and misuse. The consultative function of the narcotics and psychotropics commission has been reinforced and its mission extended to include evaluation.

Determination of buprenorphine in plasma by liquid chromatography: application to heroin-dependent subjects.

A rapid, sensitive, precise and accurate HPLC assay with UV detection was developed for the determination of buprenorphine (BN) in human plasma. This method involved a two-step extraction in the presence of clothiapine as internal standard. The compounds were chromatographied on a reversed-phase Spherisorb C8 column with a mobile phase consisting of 0.

Abuse of prescription medicines in southwestern France.

Background: Few quantitative data are available concerning abuse of medicine in the general population, although dependence on prescription medicines involves a significant proportion of the population. Falsified prescription forms can be used as an indicator of abuse.

Methods: Community pharmacists in a representative network were asked to report any falsified prescription form presented over a 1-year period.