An Update on Zolpidem Abuse and Dependence

Abstract

In 2004, the health authorities (French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety—ANSM) modified the summary of zolpidem characteristics. Particularly it now includes the sentence “a pharmacodependence may materialize.” The current article aims to show that despite this modification, zolpidem continues to be associated with problematic drug use, as the official system (Center for Evaluation and Information on Pharmacodependence—Addictovigilance network) providing information on the abuse and dependence potential of drugs informs us. The authors reviewed the literature on this topic and analyzed French data from zolpidem's postmarketing period that were collected by the Addictovigilance network from 2003 to 2010. Postmarketing data and the 30 case reports yielded from the literature review highlight a significant dependence and abuse potential for zolpidem. This survey led to propose in stronger additional rules in France to try to mitigate the abuse potential of zolpidem.

KEYWORDS:

• Pharmacodependence
• zolpidem
• abuse
• postmarketing assessment