[Twenty-five years of the French Addictovigilance Network (FAN)].

Based on recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO), the French addictovigilance network was set up since 1990, in order to assess and to monitor the potential for abuse and dependence of psychoactive substances. This network composed of 13 addictovigilance centers implemented in medical pharmacology departments of French university hospitals has developed specific pharmacoepidemiological tools repeated each year so as to lead us to updated pharmacological indicators related to drug abuse. As a single source may not be informative enough, the French addictovigilance network consider simultaneously a range of indicators focusing on health insurance database, health professional sentinel networks, characteristics of psychotropic consumptions and analysed them from a medical and pharmacological point of view combined to pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic data. The task force and the original role of this addictovigilance network is to work with reactivity to all different levels (local, regional, national) linked to all heath professionals in order to detect more quickly a potential warning signal leading to information, public health decision at a regional and/or national level and contributing also to a European and an international overview.