Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Woden]

Which medicines do we need a prescription for in Korea that we don't normally at home? Is it mostly the same?

[Hokie21]

http://www.korea4expats.com/article-medications-prescriptions.html


(I would copy and paste but it doesn't seem to be working)

[Milwaukiedave]

You can get some cold medication over the counter, but most of it isn't of a very good quality. It has gotten better then when I was first here though and some western over the counter stuff can be found. I've seen Thera Flu for the flu and colds. Also throat drops called Streps are very good as they have an anti-inflammatory ingredient.

[dairyairy]

Try to bring a large bottle of ibuprofen with you because it's very expensive in Korea.

[beentheredonethat777]

[alongway]

[Hokie21]

[beentheredonethat777]

[denverdeath]

I would say it's mostly the same...for things like stronger painkillers, insulin, and antibiotics you need a prescription. Prior to 2000, that wasn't the case - you could walk in and ask for your flavor and dose of antibiotic without a blink of an eye. A little birdy recently told me that the korean gov't has a plan to make a move to internet-based diagnoses where the patient prints a script and brings it to the nearby pharmacy to be filled for a lot of the prescriptions that are currently required to be written by a doctor, with a face-to-face consultation. Good move or not? Maybe something for another thread...?

[alongway]

[mayorhaggar]

In general you can get the same stuff, but the issues are that the boxes are all in Korean, the doses are different, the boxes have way fewer pills, and multi-ingredient medicines tend to have different mixes than in the US at least.

You can get basic cold medicine over the counter, stuff with antihistamines and pain relief, and I think with anti-cough mixed in. But I don't think there's anything as good as Dayquil. And I don't know if there's something made for nighttime use like Nyquil. You can get Theraflu (maybe ask for "teraplu") and getting acetiminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen is easy.

When I've gone to the pharmacy and just told them my symptoms, they tended to just give me weird weak stuff that didn't do anything. When I did some research and wrote down the Korean name of a specific medicine, or the English name of an ingredient (like gualifesin or whatever) then I got better stuff. A good pharmacist should be able to at least read English scientific words. And pharmacies (like every business in Korea) like to cluster around one another, so if one doesn't have what you want, just try the pharmacy next door.

If you have a cold and go to the doctor he'll just give you antibiotics and some advil, doesn't matter if it's a virus. It might clear you up or it might not.

Again the main thing is you just have to do a bit more legwork. It's not like back home where you can just walk down the aisle in Walgreen's and see a big box that says "NIGHTTIME COUGH RELIEF."

And if you do find some Korean stuff that works, keep the box so you can go back and ask for more. Korean meds tend to come in pitifully small boxes (like 6 pills to a box).

[alongway]

나이트타임연질캡슐
This is extremely similar to your nyquil nighttime capsules for cold and flu
same painkiller, same cough suppressant, the only difference is what they use for the succinate. Mainly because the one that nyquil uses in theirs basically doesn't exist here only a couple pills available using it. Dosage amounts per pill are identical.
Day version is: 데이타임연질캡슐

Syrup is harder to match, as they have a couple extra things in it, but all are available over the counter. If your local pharmacy doesn't have it they will usually be happy to order it in.