One out of every 20 South Korean teens have misused potentially harmful medications, a report showed Monday, a rate higher than the percentage of those who had tried smoking.
Some 5.2 percent of respondents said they had taken psychotropic substances for "nonmedicinal purposes" at least once, according to a survey by the National Youth Policy Institute on 3,384 middle and high school students. This includes drugs for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and sleeping, which are only available by prescription.
The proportion of teens who misused such drugs was higher than that of teens who had smoked a cigarette, which was 4.2 percent.
Among those who used such drugs for nonmedicinal purposes in the last six months, 24.4 percent said they used ADHD medication, followed by appetite suppressants (20 percent), sleeping medication (13.3 percent) and antianxiety medication (13.3 percent).
The use of ADHD drugs has been surging among teens as a purported means to help students focus.
A total of 113,263 teenage boys and 49,209 girls were prescribed such drugs between January and September 2025, both of which were higher than the respective figures for all of 2024, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
Researchers noted that much of the ADHD drug use appears to be repeated abuse of the substance, rather than a one-off incident. Teens who had taken such medications in the last six months were asked how often they used it, to which 23.1 percent said at least 20 times, while 7.6 percent answered six to 19 times.
The report also indicated teens' substantial reliance on coffee and drinks with high caffeine content. Some 54.5 percent said they drink coffee at least once a month, while 19.9 percent said they drink it six to 19 times a month.
For other highly caffeinated drinks, 61.2 percent drink one at least once a month, while 10.8 percent partake at least 10 times a month.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
