“Chemical submission”: the expression has been consolidated in public debate thanks to the Mazan rape trial. With another: “medical ambulation.” Because during the almost ten years of Gisèle Pelicot’s ordeal, raped by her husband and dozens of men after being drugged with anxiolytics, clinical signs and symptoms have been identified: memory loss, “absences”, gynecological problems… Without the “puzzle” which made it possible to identify the sexual assaults of which she was a victim and to be able to reconstruct them.
Beyond the seriousness of the events, and the emotion they arouse, the case questions the role of doctors, an essential surveillance body in the face of this type of violence. But “How to think about the unthinkable? » : The question is asked, in these terms, by general practitioners, those family doctors closest to their patients, who do not hide their frequent ignorance of this type of violence.
“Of course we are concerned about this matter, but the monitoring function assigned to us is not simple. reports Emeline Pasdeloup, co-responsible, at the Faculty of General Medicine, of a working group on the subject formed a year ago. We are at the limit of two delicate topics to address in consultation, that of sexual health and that of violence. » It is even more complicated, adds this young general practitioner who works in Loiret. “when the patient does not come for that reason, or when she comes accompanied by her husband” – a common scenario.
Total or partial amnesia
Added to the lack of training of professionals is the complexity of the phenomenon: chemical subjugation, defined by the National Agency for Drug Safety (ANSM) as“administration for criminal purposes (rape, acts of pedophilia) or criminal purposes (intentional violence, theft) of psychoactive substances without the knowledge of the victim, or under threat”It has the particularity of plunging many victims into total or partial amnesia.
How many are there? Estimation is very difficult. During the year 2022, according to data from the national addiction surveillance network, collected through forensic medicine services, toxicology laboratories, emergency services, police, etc. 1,229 “substance-facilitated attacks” They were retained in the ANSM. Among them, 97 refer to cases of chemical presentations. “likely”346 to the so-called cases of chemical “vulnerability” (induced by consumption “volunteer” of substances) and 786 to presentations “possible”. The Paris addiction monitoring center, which has coordinated this annual national survey for twenty years, speaks of an increase “exponential”to link it to freedom of expression on social networks.
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