patients will have to limit their consumption of paracetamol

With the approach of winter and its colds, and in the midst of an epidemic wave of Covid-19, patients will have to tighten their belts in terms of consumption of Doliprane or Efferalgan. In a press release, the national drug safety agency (ANSM) called on health professionals to limit the dispensing of paracetamol to their patients.

Thus, pharmacists are invited tolimit dispensing to two boxes per patient» in the absence of a prescription, to «prefer dispensing by prescription», and to restrict the online sale of paracetamol. Physicians should avoid prescribing this painkiller to patients.who do not need it immediately“, and of “favor a dosage of three doses per day every 8 hours (instead of four doses per day every 6 hours)“.

Read alsoParacetamol: why Doliprane is out of stock in pharmacies

Supply voltages

Patients, the ANSM asks not to stock up, and to expect a “adapted dispensation“: Pharmacists will indeed be able to sell a quantity of paracetamol lower than that which appears on the prescription. The ANSM, but also the College of General Medicine and the pharmacists’ unions, invite us to “moderate the use of paracetamol” for “allow patients who have an immediate need to benefit from it“.

This opinion is justified by supply tensions that have lasted since July, as the ANSM had previously alerted. In question, production difficulties and an increase in consumption during the Covid crisis.

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