[Misuse of paracetamol in primary care: Cross-sectional study in a French rural context].

OBJECTIVE:To estimate the prevalence of the paracetamol use for a reason other than pain (qualitative misuse) during the last 12 months in patients consulting their general practitioner, as well as the reasons for this misuse. METHODS:Descriptive cross-sectional analysis, with gender weighting to estimate the prevalence of paracetamol misuse. RESULTS:In total, data from 209 patients were included in the analysis. Among them, 11 patients declared having taken paracetamol for a reason other than pain, i.e., a gender-weighted prevalence of 5.7% (95% CI: 3.0 to 10.4). Nearly two-thirds of these patients said they had done it to feel better. CONCLUSIONS:The paracetamol misuse is rare but real in general practice. Further studies are needed to better understand it, especially qualitative studies.