MFDS Issues Preliminary Notices to 829 Doctors for Prescribing Anti-Anxiety Drugs Above Standards

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced on the 18th that it will implement a 'Pre-Notification System' that notifies 829 doctors who prescribed anti-anxiety drugs beyond the misuse action criteria and tracks and manages whether improvements are made.

Procedures for Measures to Prevent the Abuse of Narcotics

Anti-anxiety drugs refer to psychotropic drugs whose main ingredients include chlordiazepoxide, mexazolam, ethyl loflazepate, clotiazepam, lorazepam, diazepam, bromazepam, etizolam, clobazam, and alprazolam, totaling 10 substances.

This measure is based on the analysis of big data on prescriptions of narcotic anti-anxiety drugs collected through the Narcotics Integrated Management System over six months from October last year to March this year. During the analysis period, doctors who prescribed anti-anxiety drugs for more than three months, which exceeds the misuse action criteria, were selected as notification targets.

This anti-anxiety drug Pre-Notification System is being implemented for the second time following 2021. The total number of targeted doctors is 829, a decrease of 319 (28%) compared to 2021.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety plans to monitor the targeted doctors for about three months to confirm whether their prescriptions have improved. Additionally, it stated that administrative actions will be taken against doctors who continue to prescribe in violation of the misuse action criteria.

Meanwhile, this year, the Ministry will also implement the Pre-Notification System for ADHD medications to reduce the misuse of medical narcotics.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.