Trends in analgesic consumption in France over the last 10 years and comparison of patterns across Europe (2018)

Aims: To describe consumption trends of three groups of analgesics (non-opioids, mild and strong opioids) between 2006 and 2015 in France, and compare this pattern of use with six European countries in 2015.
Methods: Annual drugs sales were extracted from the French national authority's consumption database and from the IMS-MIDAS and national databases for European countries.
Results: The use of mild opioids in France decreased by 53% during the last 10 years due to the declining use of dextropropoxyphene combinations, along with an increase in the use of non-opioids and strong opioids (from 72 to 93 and 2 to 2.8 defined daily doses/1,000 inhabitants/day, respectively). Paracetamol, the most-consumed analgesic, has increased during the last 10 years, particularly for the adult high dosage (+140%). The use of tramadol and codeine combinations has also increased by 62% and 42%, respectively. Morphine remained the most-used strong opioid although there were also high increases in the consumption of oxycodone (+613%) and fentanyl (+263% and +72% for transmucosal and transdermal forms, respectively). A comparison of the patterns of use in Europe in 2015 showed a higher consumption of both mild and strong opioids in the UK. France ranked first and third place respectively for paracetamol and mild opioid consumption, while its strong opioid use was among the lowest.
Conclusions: Paracetamol consumption is clearly highest in France, while its use of strong opioids is amongst the lowest in Europe, although the consumption of oxycodone has increased significantly. Further studies are required specifically to monitor these drugs.