An Average of 4,500 People Per Day Prescribed 600,000 Narcotic Diet Pills

Office of Rep. Kim Yoon: Over 40,000 Adolescents Used Despite Ban in 5 Years
Side Effects Like Insomnia, Auditory Hallucinations, Heart Issues, Schizophrenia Increasing Annually

# Patient A was prescribed a total of 6,037 appetite suppressants over 24 occasions at a single hospital in the past year. Another patient, B, visited eight different hospitals and was prescribed a total of 5,346 appetite suppressants over 54 occasions.

Following the rise in medicine prices, the prices of health functional foods and herbal medicines have also increased significantly, causing the health price index to rise at the largest rate in over 12 years. On the 18th, citizens are entering a pharmacy in Seoul to receive their medicine. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@

On the 24th, Kim Yoon, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, analyzed data submitted by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) and confirmed that more than 225 million appetite suppressants were prescribed domestically last year, with over 1,126,000 patients receiving prescriptions. This means that every day, 3,086 patients were prescribed 616,600 appetite suppressants.

In the current year, up to June, more than 196 million appetite suppressants were prescribed, with 835,000 patients receiving them. On average, 4,589 patients were prescribed over 602,000 appetite suppressants daily. Compared to last year, the average daily prescription volume decreased, but the number of patients increased by 48% (1,503 patients).

Since August 2020, the MFDS has established and recommended the "Safe Use Guidelines for Medical Narcotic Appetite Suppressants" to medical institutions. However, prescription rights are the exclusive authority of physicians, and there are no regulations to sanction violations of these guidelines. Notably, despite the prohibition of appetite suppressant use among adolescents, approximately 40,860 adolescents were prescribed 3,782,000 appetite suppressants over about five years from 2020 to June 2024.

Appetite suppressants designated as narcotics can cause fatal side effects such as insomnia, auditory hallucinations, heart abnormalities, and schizophrenia if overdosed. Reports of side effects from appetite suppressants have steadily increased from 190 cases in 2020 to 316 in 2021, 319 in 2022, and 342 in 2023, with 215 cases reported in the first half of this year alone.

Assemblyman Kim stated, "Although the MFDS has implemented a narcotics prescription history verification system since June this year to help doctors prevent patient misuse and abuse, it only covers fentanyl prescriptions and excludes narcotic appetite suppressants. While patient medical shopping is a problem, strict management by the MFDS is necessary for hospitals that prescribe excessively large quantities."