The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) has failed to inspect two clinics that prescribed 342 times the average prescription of narcotic appetite suppressants by all doctors, a lawmaker said Wednesday.
Rep. Kim Mi-ae of the ruling People Power Party, who is a member of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee, said one family medicine clinic in Chungcheong region prescribed narcotic diet pills in more than 194,000 cases, and another psychiatric clinic in the Seoul metropolitan area, more than 256,000 cases, between 2019 and 2022, citing MFDS data.
Given that the average annual prescription cases of narcotic appetite suppressants were 249 during the three years, the clinic in the Seoul metropolitan area prescribed 342 times the average.
The family medicine clinic in Chungcheong prescribed those diet pills to 33,000 patients annually, and the psychiatric clinic in greater Seoul, 23,000 patients, annually.
In contrast, a medical institution prescribed narcotic appetite suppressants to 53 patients annually, on average.
Appetite-killing pills such as phentermine, phendimetrazine, amfepramone (diethylpropion), and mazindol pose health risks such as developing dependence or resistance.
Due to such health risks, those treatments are prescribed for patients with a body mass index of 30kg/m2 or more, or those with a BMI of 27kg/m2 or more having other risk factors, as an adjunct therapy for weight loss therapy.
Under the MFDS regulations, narcotic appetite suppressants should be prescribed for not more than four weeks for short-term treatment, and the prescription period should not exceed three months at maximum.
However, an article from Dong-A Ilbo in July said four clinics in Gangnam-gu, Seoul prescribed a narcotic diet pill for two weeks to the reporter whose BMI was 19kg/m2.
Rep. Kim pointed out that the MFDS is failing to monitor medical institutions because “Measures to Prevent Misuse of Narcotics,” established in April 2022, did not stipulate on-site inspections on clinics or hospitals that massively prescribe appetite suppressants.
Under the measures, the MFDS conducts on-site inspections only when the prescription of narcotic appetite suppressants exceeds three months, when two or more such drugs are used in combination, or when these drugs are administered to adolescents and children.
“To make sure that narcotic diet pills do not become ‘medical shopping items,’ the MFDS should check overprescribing clinics more thoroughly and actively,” Rep. Kim said.