'The analgesic abuse syndrome': an epidemiological perspective.

Mild analgesics are freely available, widely used, and generally safe. Nevertheless a proportion of the population takes excessive quantities, of whom some develop chronic renal failure in consequence. A syndrome of analgesic abuse has been proposed, definable by characteristics other than analgesic intake. To examine this concept, a population study of analgesic consumption was carried out; the distribution was clearly unimodal and no association could be found between the quantity of analgesics taken and social class, marital status, working or not working, tea or coffee consumption or the number of cigarettes smoked. The principal determinants appeared to be sex, with females reporting a higher intake, and the presence of painful conditions. It was concluded that analgesics abuse cannot be defined other than by the number of analgesics consumed, and that the concept of an analgesic abuse 'syndrome' is not helpful in the design of preventive programmes.