Patient gets over 6,000 ADHD pills as lax prescribing puts teens at risk
Concerns rise over excessive prescriptions of ADHD medications and their potential misuse among teenagers. Korea Times file
A single patient was found to have received more than 6,000 pills of medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the first half of this year, with some cases showing prescriptions of more than 1,000 pills at once, according to government data.
Rep. Baek Jong-heon of the People Power Party, citing figures submitted by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the National Health Insurance Service on Wednesday, said the patient obtained 6,120 pills through 25 prescriptions at two hospitals in Bupyeong District, Incheon.
Over a span of five years and six months beginning in 2021, the patient received a total of 33,976 pills.
Other individuals were found to have visited multiple hospitals to obtain large quantities of ADHD medications. One person received 2,210 pills through 18 prescriptions from five medical institutions in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, while another acquired 3,315 pills from three hospitals in central Seoul.
Hospitals with unusually high prescription rates were also identified. A clinic in Seoul’s Gangnam District dispensed 841,582 pills through 8,790 prescriptions from January 2020 to June this year. Another in Busan’s Yeonje District prescribed 511,666 pills over the same period.
Five patients were each prescribed more than 1,000 pills at a time. One received 3,696 pills over three prescriptions in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province, while another obtained 2,160 pills in just two visits to a hospital in Goyang, also in Gyeonggi Province.
Experts warn that ADHD drugs, particularly when taken by children and teenagers without proper medical oversight, pose significant risks including loss of appetite, sleep problems and growth disorders.
“The misconception that ADHD medication can help students perform better academically is fueling the risk of abuse among teenagers,” Baek said. “It is a serious problem that there is virtually no joint management system between education offices and health authorities for prescriptions to adolescents.”
Data shows teenagers are the largest group of patients. Between January and May, 65,562 male teenagers received prescriptions for Medikinet Retard capsules, a common ADHD treatment, along with 25,719 female teenagers.
The next largest groups were women in their 20s (24,170), men in their 20s (17,580), women in their 30s (17,855) and men in their 30s (14,177).
Seoul accounted for the highest number of ADHD patients nationwide during the same period, with 61,129 cases. Of these, 15,116 were from Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa Districts.
Seoul’s Jongno District recorded the highest volume of prescriptions for patients under 20, with hospitals there dispensing 631,249 pills to children under 10 and 482,565 pills to teenagers in the first half of the year.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.