boxes go from 30 to 10 or 15 tablets to limit dependence

Boxes of Tramadol, a pain medication, are reduced from 30 to 10 or 15 tablets, at the request of the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM), in order to limit the risks of dependence, according to information revealed by franceinfo on Thursday April 12.

Some boxes of Tramadol could contain 30 tablets, which is often too many to treat acute pain that is supposed to disappear within a few days. According to the National Medicines Safety Agency, more than 222 reports were received in 2022, implicating the drug, including around a hundred serious cases and seven deaths caused by overdoses of this opioid which can be very addictive. The ANSM is therefore launching a new call for vigilance. In recent months, she has asked the 26 manufacturers who manufacture Tramadol to reduce the number of tablets per box.

The new boxes already distributed in pharmacies

Doctor Philippe Vella, medical director of the Medicines Agency, specifies that having too many tablets when you don’t need them makes you run “a risk of prolonging the intake of Tramadol, or even increasing the doses” which can lead to “a situation of dependence when the pain has diminished or there is no more pain”. The new packaging, “boxes of 10 to 15 tablets or capsules allow a patient to be treated over a short period of three to four days”explains Doctor Philippe Vella.

Manufacturers have played the game. They have modified their manufacturing lines and are starting to deliver boxes with fewer tablets to pharmacies. Tramadol is the cause of numerous overdoses in the United States, but also now in France: seven deaths in 2022, 16 cases of convulsions and 116 seriously affected patients.