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Two methods have been recently developed from a drug reimbursement database to provide useful indicators for public health authorities concerning the abuse potential of psychotropic drugs. The doctor-shopping indicator (DSI) measures the proportion of the drug obtained by doctor shopping among the overall quantity of the drug reimbursed and the clustering method reveals subgroups of deviant patients.

The objective of the study was to analyze and compare indicators resulting from these two methods, applied to High Dosage Buprenorphine (HDB) (a product well-known to be diverted in France), in order to determine which public health authorities needs they answer.

The patients with reimbursed HDB were grouped using the clustering method in terms of drug dispensations characteristics over a nine month period. The characteristics of the resulting subgroups …