Addiction to Nefopam: A Rare and Poorly Documented Clinical Entity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Addictions represent a major public health problem in developing countries, with health, economic and socio-professional impacts. The consumption of psychoactive drugs is responsible in France for more than 100,000 preventable deaths per year [1]. Data from epidemiological surveys on the gravity of the situation in sub-Saharan Africa are essentially hospital-based and not very representative of reality, because there are few services specializing in addictions. Opioid analgesics are molecules whose addictogenic potential has been known and described for many years [2]. In Cameroon, non-morphine analgesics are widely prescribed for the treatment of pain. Addiction to long-term use of non-opioid analgesics remains anecdotal in the scientific literature. We report here a rare case of addiction to Nefopam, a non-opioid analgesic, in a 45-year-old black woman with fibromyalgia. The aim of this presentation is to draw the attention of clinicians to the risk of addiction linked to the misuse of nefopam.