Change to prescription rules in France to prevent addiction

Rules for some medication prescriptions are set to tighten in France from December this year, in a bid to prevent opioid misuse and addiction.

From December 1, a ‘secure prescription’ will be required for medicines based on the opioids codeine or tramadol. They are generally prescribed to treat pain, but there is a risk they can be misused (such as taken to excess), and - in these cases - become dangerous.

The French medicines safety agency ANSM confirmed the change on September 26. 

A ‘secure’ prescription 

Under the new rules, prescriptions for these medications will require ‘secure’ prescriptions, which will have extra information printed on them to avoid fraud and misuse.

The prescription will be pre-printed with: 

• The doctor's first and last names and identification number, telephone number and address

• The patient's first and last names 

• An anti-fraud barcode

• The number of tablets per dose, the number of doses and the dosage of the drug

• The duration of treatment, limited to three months.

This is to prevent addiction.

Read also: Prescription rules change for French pharmacies and antibiotics 
Read also: Are US prescriptions accepted at French pharmacies? 
Read more: How long are medicine prescriptions valid in France? 

Opioid addiction risk

Tramadol in particular has been identified as a possible medicine that can unwittingly lead to opioid dependence. 

A study by addiction alert network le Réseau Français d'addictovigilance found that the number of addicts who named tramadol as the first product to cause their addiction has increased 17-fold in the past years.

In 2022 in France, there were 18 deaths related to tramadol, and seven to codeine.