The Korea Herald reports that the Korean market for insomnia medications is rapidly growing due to more people complaining of sleep disorders.
According to data by the National Health Insurance Service, 455,900 Koreans received hospital treatment for sleep disorders in 2015, up a whopping 57 percent from five years earlier.
After breaching the 300,000-mark, the number of people with sleeping problems has spiked more than 40 percent over the past five years, with the annual increase rate averaging 8.7 percent.
The number of sleep disorder patients is widely estimated to far exceed the official tally as a considerable number of people opt not to see the doctor.
Buoyed by the spike in the number of sleep disorder patients, the local market for insomnia treatments, especially non-psychotropic drugs, has been rising sharply, according to industry watchers.
That’s because a growing number of people with sleep problems are turning to non-psychotropic medications, which lead to fewer side effects and are less addictive, they said. Existing treatments are mostly psychotropic, which affects the mind, emotions, and behavior of patients.
