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. Sales data were used to express results as abuse rate and abuse rate ratio.


RESULTS
Two-thirds of the 130 pharmacies in the network reported at least 1 falsified prescription. The reported incidence of falsified prescriptions was 2.3 per 10 000 inhabitants. A total of 392 falsified prescription forms was collected. The abuse rate ratios were 171 (95% CI 140 to 210) for dextroamphetamine-phenobarbital in combination, 168 (95% CI 131 to 216) for fenozolone, 67 (95% CI 53 to 84) for buprenorphine, and 40.5 (95% CI 33 to 50) for clobenzorex.


CONCLUSIONS
These results show the efficiency of a method for detecting falsified prescriptions forms using community pharmacists. The abuse of medicines already known for their addictive potential can be estimated and alerts can also be detected.
Baumevieille
M
M
Centre d'Evaluation et d'Information sur les Pharmacodépendances de Bordeaux, Centre Hospitalier et Universitaire, Université Victor Segalen-Bordeaux II, France.
Haramburu
F
F
Bégaud
B
B
D003415:Crime; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D005568:Forms and Records Control; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D010594:Pharmacies; D017891:Pharmacoepidemiology; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders