Intentional drug poisonings rise among young people over last decade, KDCA data shows

Seven in 10 patients treated for poisoning in Korean emergency rooms last year had intentionally ingested drugs, pesticides or gas, according to government data on Wednesday. The share of poisoning patients in their teens and 20s has also doubled over the past decade.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) counted 6,816 poisoning patients across 29 hospitals nationwide in 2025. Women made up 60.5 percent of those patients, and 69.4 percent of cases were intentional. Poisoning in the survey includes not only ingesting drugs or toxic substances, but also cases involving pesticide ingestion or gas inhalation.

Patients in over 58 percent of the cases were attempting suicide, the largest share, followed by accidents at 26.1 percent, treatment-related causes at 4.1 percent and overdose at 2.1 percent.

Medications — including sleeping pills, sedatives, antidepressants and painkillers — caused two-thirds of poisoning cases, or 66.7 percent of the total. Gas accounted for 11.5 percent, industrial toxic substances 10 percent and pesticides 9.4 percent. The share of medication-related poisoning rose 21.8 percentage points over the past decade, from 44.9 percent in 2015. Over the same period, gas-related poisoning fell from 20.6 percent to 11.5 percent, and pesticide-related poisoning fell from 16 percent to 9.4 percent.

The age profile of poisoning patients also shifted significantly. Last year, patients in their 20s made up the largest share at 18.1 percent, followed by teenagers at 15.8 percent. Combined, the share of patients in their teens and 20s doubled, from 16.9 percent in 2015 to 33.9 percent last year. Teenagers alone saw their share nearly triple, rising from 5.6 percent to 15.8 percent — a 2.8-fold increase.

The poisoning data was part of a broader KDCA injury report covering 98,615 patients treated for all types of injuries last year.

Falls from height and slips or falls from standing height combined accounted for the largest share of injury causes at 40 percent, followed by traffic accidents at 15.5 percent and blunt trauma at 14.8 percent. Among patients who fell from height, 45.4 percent were children under the age of 10. Among patients who slipped or fell from standing height, 50.4 percent were 60 or older, and 42.5 percent of deaths from such falls were among people 80 or older.

"We will pursue effective injury prevention and management policies based on scientific evidence," said Lim Seung-kwan, commissioner of the KDCA.

BY RHEE ESTHER [[email protected]]