Citation

Peyrière H, Nogue E, Eiden C, Frauger E, Charra M, Picot MC. Fundam. Clin. Pharmacol. 2016; 30(5): 466-475.

Affiliation

Unité de recherche clinique et épidémiologique, Département de l'Information Médicale, Hôpital La Colombière, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Montpellier.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/fcp.12210

PMID

27315486

Abstract

Slow-release oral morphine sulphate (SM) is one of the most abused prescription opioids in France. However, the regional feature of the abuse of morphine is poorly documented. To investigate the abuse of SM in a French administrative region, a multi-source approach was applied. The first approach was based on SM exposition at national and regional level using the OPPIDUM survey. In a second approach, we analysed a drug reimbursement database to assess the magnitude of SM abuse in Languedoc-Roussillon (LR) region. A clustering method was applied to classify patients and to describe the profile of deviant patients. The third approach was based on a self-administered anonymous questionnaire, proposed to patients seen in addiction care centers in the Languedoc-Roussillon region and consuming oral morphine sulphate The OPPIDUM study showed that in most regions, where the prevalence of heroin use is higher than the national average of 9.1%, morphine sulphate consumers were fewer. With the clustering method, three subgroups were identified. One of them gathered 35 users (3.2%) with a deviant behavior characterized by significantly more dispensations, dispensing pharmacies and prescribers. These subjects were mainly men, younger, and more consumers of benzodiazepines and opioid maintenance therapy than the others. The third study allowed specifying that SM was mainly injected (93.7%), bought in the street (80%), and used because of unavailability and the poor quality of heroin (33.9%). The three proposed approaches are complementary and help to clarify the abuse of oral morphine sulphate, while assessing the motivations of this abuse. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Language: en