they became “addicted” to tramadol or codeine

“If I don't take this magic pill every night, it's a disaster! testifies Adeline, a 34-year-old Ambois resident. My brain creates pain, my legs are restless and I am unable to soothe myself to sleep. It’s as if my body was broadcasting something…”

A lack « atrocious » that Monique de Parçay-Meslay, 75 years old, a tramadol user for around twenty years, knows well. “One day, I left for Corsica, without a prescription and with too few medications. I hurt everywhere, I was execrable…” For six months, Tony, a 39-year-old from Chambrais, tried to lower the doses. “Every time I had a fever, I passed out…”

Same upheavals for Sandra, 37 ans : “I sometimes went three days without sleeping, in a flu-like state…” François, Lochois of 32 years of “calm temperament”found himself “like an electric battery, to move to pass the thing that does not pass. » He questions : “Why didn’t anyone warn me? »

A lack of warning

Initially, four of these five Touraine residents were victims of road or work accidents, leaving with fractures and severe pain that became chronic. Monique's elbows were ruined by the repetitive actions of cleaning and handling dishes in a canteen.

For everyone, these painkillers, containing codeine or tramadol and which will be the subject of secure prescriptions from 1^is March 2025, were prescribed by a doctor. If they needed it at that moment, they regret not having been warned for the future.

Questioned about these prescriptions, a general practitioner from Tours denounces “pressure from pharmaceutical laboratories” and one “massive hospital prescription after surgery for several years and which is worrying. » A prescription which nevertheless seems inevitable in cases of pain. “But which is done without modulation, regrets the doctor. For example, we often see the standard prescription “four tablets per day for a month” without it ever being explained to the patient that a painkiller is taken when you are in pain and then you stop. »

“A massive hospital prescription after surgery”

At first, Monique took 50 mg of tramadol per day. “Quite quickly, it no longer did anything for me, I had to increase the doses to 200 mg daily. » It was the arrival of a new general practitioner who made him aware, twenty years later, of his state of dependence. “For a year, he reduced the doses. I am very proud to have gotten out of this mess! » Despite the return of pain? “It’s less strong because I’m no longer working. »

Tony has lost three jobs since his accident fifteen years ago. He says he has, “one night at 2:10 a.m.”open “one by one his tablets” to put them in the trash. “I then experienced two and a half weeks of fever, tremors and vomiting.”

Despite other serious medical complications, he has since been careful to keep tramadol at bay. “I prefer to live with pain. There are still episodes where I have to take morphine. But my body is used to it and even with large doses, I suffer. » He got back into sport. “I'm in pain, but morally I feel better! It's better than being in pain on your couch. »

“I’d rather be in pain”

François followed a four-month protocol to stop, Sandra a three-week substitution treatment. After eight months of tramadol, she now says “understanding drug addicts”. She notes with astonishment that these substances “hanging out in many cupboards”.

There remains Adeline, still addicted, seven years later. “From six, I went to one tablet per day. But the last one resists. » His doctor advised him to consult an addictologist – “but it’s complicated to do all these kilometers” – or be hospitalized. She hesitates: “I can’t see myself missing work for a pill…” Former caregiver, she thought “know a little” medications. “I never thought it would come to this. It must be said, so that everyone knows! »