The number of patients prescribed medical narcotics has exceeded 20 million for two consecutive years.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Korea Institute of Drug Safety and Risk Management released the '2025 Statistics on Medical Narcotics Handling' containing these findings.

The statistics were compiled based on information reported to the Narcotics Information Management System last year by 49,117 narcotics handlers nationwide, including pharmacies, medical institutions, and veterinary clinics.

Last year, 20.2 million patients were prescribed medical narcotics for purposes such as health checkups.

The number of prescriptions reached approximately 100 million, with a total of 1.957 billion units prescribed.

The number of patients prescribed narcotics increased by 0.9% compared to 2024, when the figure was 20.01 million.

The total volume of prescriptions increased by 1.6% compared to the previous year.

By age group, patients in their 50s accounted for the largest portion of narcotics prescriptions at 20.5%.

This was followed by those in their 60s at 19.6% and those in their 40s at 18.9%, with individuals in their 40s to 60s making up 59% of all patients.

Among patients administered narcotics, 12.62 million were prescribed anesthetics such as propofol, while 9.72 million were administered hypnotic sedatives such as midazolam and zolpidem.

Notably, among the medical narcotics prescribed last year, there was a significant increase in the use of ADHD medication, which is often mistakenly known as a "study drug."

The number of patients prescribed ADHD medication last year was 392,000, an increase of 16.2% compared to the previous year.

(Photo: Yonhap News TV, Yonhap News)