[Which analgesic after dextropropoxyphene withdrawal? A survey in a sample of general practitioners in southwest of France].

Following the announcement of the future withdrawal in Europe of drugs containing dextropropoxyphene-paracetamol (DXP-P), we performed a postal survey in a randomly selected sample of 350 general practitioners (GP) from the Midi-Pyrénées area (2.6 million inhabitants) in order to investigate which drug (s) they are willing to prescribe in anticipation of the announced withdrawal. Most of GP prescribed DXP-P in acute and chronic pain. In acute pain, GP would switch to codeine-paracetamol (59.1%) or tramadol alone or associated with paracetamol (79%), whereas they would switch to high dose paracetamol (54.7%) and tramadol alone or associated with paracetamol (74.6%) in chronic pain. Switching to other level 2 analgesic drugs after the withdrawal of dextropropoxyphene should be closely monitored because the safety profile of other drugs.