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Aim: Sodium‐glucose cotransporter‐2 inhibitors (SGLT‐2i) have been commercialized in France for type 2 diabetes since April 2020 and later for heart and renal diseases. Given the recent developments in treating diabetes and the widening of SGLT‐2i indications, we aimed to study changes in the use of glucose‐lowering drugs in France and to characterize SGLT‐2i new users. Methods: We performed a nationwide utilization study using the French health insurance database. Trends in incidence and prevalence of glucose‐lowering drug use were assessed by a repeated cross‐sectional study in 2019 and 2021. A cohort study of incident SGLT‐2i users was then conducted to describe patient characteristics and the strategy for treating diabetes. Results: The prevalence of SGLT‐2i use gradually reached 0.1% in the third quarter of 2021 and increased more significantly to 0.2% thereafter. SGLT‐2i became the second most prescribed glucose‐lowering drug class after metformin at the end of 2021 (0.1%). Among the cohort of 125 387 SGLT‐2i new users (mean age 65.0 years; 60.1% of men), 87.6% presented a diabetic comorbidity. The patient profile changed over the study period with an increasing proportion of patients with cardiovascular (28.7% in 2020 vs. 40.2% in 2021) or renal (7.7% in 2020 vs. 11.8% in 2021) comorbidities at initiation. The main combinations used at SGLT‐2i initiation were metformin (12.5%) and metformin plus dipeptidyl peptidase‐4 inhibitors (8.1%). One‐year probability of SGLT‐2i persistence was estimated to be 55%. Conclusion: The expansion of indications for SGLT‐2i and the broadening of the target population make it essential to assess the reasons for discontinuation and review their safety profile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to make an exhaustive assessment of circumstances of bites by exotic reptiles bred in France. A retrospective observational study was conducted in all the reported cases from 2000 to 2020 in French poison control centers (PCCs). Two hundred and eighteen cases of bites were recorded. The sex ratio (M/F) of the patients was 1.79 and the mean age of the patients was 29.0 ± 15.8 years. Twenty-two cases (10.1%) occurred during the deep night. One hundred and eighty-six bites (85.7%) occurred in a private context; however, there were more cases of high severity when it occurred in a professional setting (60.0% vs. 11.2%, p < 0.01). The feeding/nursing activity accounted for 54.7% cases. Forty-three species of snake were identified; 28 were considered venomous. There were no deaths among the patients in the study. Most of the cases (85.8%) were of mild severity. All of the patients bitten by a venomous reptile were hospitalized: 10 patients received an antivenom; and 2 required surgery. Bites occurred at home and by a small number of popular non-venomous reptile species (pythons and boas, colubrids). These occurred mainly when handling the animals. The rare envenomations were mainly by Asian and American crotalids, followed by elapids. One-third of them were treated with antivenom when available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The disputatio is a pedagogical method existing since the Middle-Ages where students had to debate about a question asked by a "master", exercising their thinking and oratory skills. To move away from traditional vertical teaching methods, the disputatio has been revived by pharmacologists. Thus, for almost three successive years, several groups of young French pharmacologists and therapists confronted their ideas concerning a medical question at a therapeutic impasse. The aim here is to describe the initial feedback received from participants., Methods: An anonymous questionnaire was sent by email in May 2023 to the participants of the different disputationes of 2019, 2022 and 2023. Participants were asked about different aspects of their feelings before, during and after the disputatio, using the 5-point Likert scale. They were also asked to describe the event in 2 to 5 words. Finally, participants could leave their comments in a free-field and were asked to give an overall satisfaction score out of 10., Results: Out of the 39 participants, 27 (69.2%) answered the questionnaire. Although 50% of respondents reported a feeling of anxiety before participating, most enjoyed the expert talks as well as working with people they did not know. Besides, over 66% reported having underestimated the skills they could share with colleagues from different backgrounds. Over 55% of respondents reported progress in methodology, and over 83% in pharmacology and/or therapeutics. Participants reported an overall satisfaction score of 8.6/10, and the main terms used to describe the event were "sharing", "enriching" and "meeting"., Conclusion: The disputatio is an innovative training program whose pedagogical and human values were underlined by most of the participants. Beyond pharmacology and therapeutics, the principle of disputatio could be extended to other disciplines, spanning the centuries., (Copyright © 2023 Société française de pharmacologie et de thérapeutique. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

In the world, the impact of environmental conditions on the number of scorpion events was evaluated in North Africa,Middle East, and the Amazonian region but not in Europe. In mainland France, scorpion species described are Buthus occitanus (Amoreux, 1789), Belisarius xambeui (Simon, 1879) and 4 Euscorpiidae: Euscorpius concinnus (Koch, 1837), Euscorpius italicus (Herbst, 1800), Euscorpius tergestinus (Koch, 1837), and Tetratrichobothrius flavicaudis (De Geer, 1778). We aimed to describe the impact of environmental conduction on the number of scorpion events. For this, a retrospective multi-center study was conducted with data from the French poison control centers files about scorpion events between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2020. During the study period, 975 incoming calls for scorpion events were recorded and 574 were related to scorpions native to mainland France and Corsica: B. occitanus (n = 86), Euscorpiidae species (n = 222), B. xambeui (n = 1), and undetermined species (n = 265). Cases were mostly reported along the Mediterranean coast, along rivers, and in cities with a trading port. The number of scorpion events was linked to the rivers' water level, rivers' flow, temperature, sunshine, and pluviometry (P < 0.05 for all variables). B. occitanus need warmest and driest environment than Euscorpiidae spp. A link between the severity of the envenoming and climatic condition or seasonality was not demonstrated., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America.All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)