Tremors, sweats…
In Gond-Pontouvre, Laura, a young 26-year-old saleswoman, is still there. It all started with a suicide attempt in 2019. The young woman tries to open her veins. Her arm pain does not go away and she is on Tramadol. “No one warned me that I might be addicted. » After a few weeks of treatment, she tried to stop but couldn’t. She gets new prescriptions.
Not far from there, in Champniers, Marlène recounts the agonies of withdrawal. After nine months of daily intake, his facial pain disappeared. She tries to stop. All alone. “Very bad idea. I suddenly had the flu. I had tremors, sweats, in short a withdrawal syndrome with also kidney pain. » She goes to the emergency room, she explains her situation. The doctor understands. Then begins a stop in stages, decreasing. It will take him nine months to get through it.
“Sometimes, I didn’t have any pain but I still took it to anticipate the pain.”
Today, she testifies “so that people understand that it is not a simple medicine. We can’t stop suddenly, it’s too dangerous. » It is not Séverine Auduberteau who will say the opposite. “This is shit!” This medico-psychological aid fell in after a hysterectomy, a removal of the uterus. “I took Tramadol for almost a year. » To relieve the pain, she increases the doses. To find this “rather nice cotton effect” every time. Like a joint. “Sometimes, I didn’t have any pain but I still took it to anticipate the pain. » And then one day, something clicked.
Séverine comes across the series Painkiller, broadcast on Netflix, which tells the story of the opioid crisis in the United States. “There I said to myself, I have to stop, I don’t want to become like that. » For her too, withdrawal turns into an ordeal. “Sick sweats, spasms in my legs, the feeling of having animals in my body… I spent my time in the shower crying, I was irritable… But this series helped me. » She then gradually reduced the doses and, not without difficulty, eventually got through it.
3 minutes to get some
From December 1, 2024, medicines containing tramadol, codeine and dihydrocodeine will only be dispensed upon presentation of a secure prescription. And this, in order to avoid abuse…This type of prescription must meet criteria aimed at making it tamper-proof: mention of mandatory information pre-printed in blue to identify the prescriber, appearance of a watermark representing a caduceus, presence of squares in micro-letters, minimum weight set at 77 g/m2… The dosage, posology and duration of treatment must be written in full. CL was able to see that for the moment, it is very easy to obtain Tramadol with a simple video consultation. By claiming back pain – non-existent – during a teleconsultation via the Qare application, it was possible for us to obtain a box of this opiate in three minutes. “It’s lamentable…”, complains Séverine Auduberteau.
In Gond-Pontouvre, Laura is not there. She tells lies. “I lied to the doctor to get prescriptions. I said I was in pain when that wasn’t true. » Each time, she leaves the office with a prescription for this opiate. Like a drug reimbursed by Social Security. To be more discreet, she is also cunning. “I ask people around me to go to the doctor and ask for it. » And it works. Laura then buys them the boxes of Tramadol. €2 a box for one, €10 for three for another. “I can’t get rid of it.” Sometimes she says she takes up to ten a day. “I feel well-being, I feel like I can do anything, I have crazy energy. Now, I’m on Tramadol and I want to continue, it gives me a boost. I’m at a stage where I’m taking four of them. Sometimes at night before I sleep, and I wake up at night to take it. » Conversely, dark thoughts invade it when it decreases.
Memory loss
All three also mention memory loss. The three sticks of butter purchased successively by Marlène. And this story from Laura: “The other day, I was on the phone with my mother and all of a sudden, I wasn’t there anymore, I was folding my laundry. Except that I didn’t understand why I was no longer online with her, because for me, we never hung up. I had to call her back and she was the one who told me that we had said goodbye and hung up. Except that to this day, I still have no memory of that. » Stop? “I can’t do it at the moment, because I feel the need to maintain a certain balance in my life. »
More and more addictology patients in Camille-Claudel
In Camille-Claudel, in his addiction department, Dr Philippe Batel welcomes “more and more” patients addicted to Tramadol. He notes that withdrawal can appear as complicated as for heroin. When patients are hospitalized, the idea is to gradually reduce the doses or replace Tramadol with methadone. Like heroin addicts do. “It’s a long negotiation,” he said. He cites the example of a patient identified by the CPAM. Health Insurance has in fact noted a large number of reimbursements for Tramadol in its file. And referred her to addiction. “Now she only has one prescriber and one pharmacy. And if she is prescribed it elsewhere, it is not reimbursed,” explains Philippe Batel. Who is not fooled. “We know that she has her husband prescribed it… And she tells us this with absolute pleasure. » He also remembers this patient suffering from neck pain who preferred to “do his Tramadol” rather than do an X-ray of the neck… “He never explored the causes of his pain. But he has a hard time admitting it to himself…”
During treatment, addictologists work in conjunction with algologists, pain specialists. “There is a remarkable team at the clinical center. »
For his part, general practitioner Louis-Adrien Delarue “does not think well” of this drug and has done so “for a long time. » He cites the undesirable effects: “there is of course dependence but also addiction”. To regain the effect, you must increase the dose. “It can also cause cardiac arrest and neurological problems. When prescribing, you need a real speech from the doctor. » For him, Tramadol is “overly trivialized by doctors who do not train enough, who do not look at the studies enough. » And this opiate should only arrive “as a second or third line after therapeutic failures. » He believes that the new regulations with secure prescriptions “are good collective news. This is an excellent idea that goes in the right direction. This will be a signal to younger generations of doctors so that they do not trivialize the matter. »
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