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Published on: November 9, 2016
[Misuse of paracetamol in primary care: Cross-sectional study in a French rural context]
Shérazade Kinouani1, Claire Vielle2, Céline Lambert3
1Inserm, Bordeaux Population Health Research Center, Team HEALTHY, UMR 1219, université de Bordeaux, 33000 Bordeaux, France; Département de médecine générale, université de Bordeaux, 33000 Bordeaux, France.
Objective:
To estimate the prevalence of the paracetamol use for a reason other than pain (qualitative misuse) during the last 12 months in patients consulting their general practitioner, as well as the reasons for this misuse.
Methods:
Descriptive cross-sectional analysis, with gender weighting to estimate the prevalence of paracetamol misuse.
Results:
In total, data from 209 patients were included in the analysis. Among them, 11 patients declared having taken paracetamol for a reason other than pain, i.e., a gender-weighted prevalence of 5.7% (95% CI: 3.0 to 10.4). Nearly two-thirds of these patients said they had done it to feel better.
Conclusions:
The paracetamol misuse is rare but real in general practice. Further studies are needed to better understand it, especially qualitative studies.
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