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Dextropropoxyphene: more deaths

Dextropropoxyphene is still being sold in France, even though it has caused deaths and its combination with paracetamol has not been proved any more effective as a painkiller than paracetamol alone.

The combination of dextropropoxyphene + paracetamol has not been proved any more effective as a painkiller than paracetamol alone. Dextropropoxyphene is stored in the body in cases of renal failure, in elderly patients especially, and can lead to serious respiratory and cardiac disorders.

Following the occurrence of deaths caused by accidental dextropropoxyphene poisoning, various measures have been taken in a number of countries: withdrawal from the market in Sweden and Switzerland; restrictions on use in New Zealand; withdrawal from the market scheduled for the end of 2007 in England and Wales. In the USA, a consumers’ association is demanding the withdrawal of drugs based on dextropropoxyphene, implicated in more than 2,100 accidental deaths between 1981 and 1999.

In France, 7 deaths a year on average are linked to dextropropoxyphene.

Why is this drug still being sold in France? There is no justification for exposing patients to the fatal risks of dextropropoxyphene when other painkillers, in particular paracetamol and codeine, have a better risk-benefit balance.

©Prescrire April 2007

Source: "Dextropropoxyphène : encore des décès" Rev Prescrire 2007 ; 27 (282) : 274.

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