Crushing Tablets?

Question

I hate swollowing pills. My mother always crushed them into tiny sand-sized particles when I was a kid. Does crushing them into smaller size reduce their overall effect. List sources if possible.

Answer 1

It depends on each different tablet. Some have special coatings to protect your stomach or to release the drug slowly around your body. The main consequences of crushing tablets are as follows:

-The protective coating is lost, causing you extra side effects e.g stomach bleeding.

-The protective coating is lost, meaning that the stomach acid destroys the drug and it is no longer effective.

- The modified release function is destroyed, meaning that a large dose of the drug is released instantly, potentially causing an overdose.

My recommendation- either post a list of the meds youre taking in with the question or take a list along to your pharmacist. Don't listen to all the people who say its fine, it can be a fatal habit.

Answer 2

Depends on the pill. These days there are tablets with special release properties that make it essential that the pill be swallowed whole. Probably the most noted in the news is the recent abuse of timed-release narcotics. Abusers have crushed them and promptly died from overdose. If you're over age ten, wouldn't it be easier just to learn how to take them? I'm sure the reason you "hate" taking them is that you never learned the proper technique. Ask a patient nurse, and you should have no difficulties.

Answer 3

Enteric coated tablets should never be crushed. Tablets that are soft of the out side ( dont look like a m&M) can be crushed.
However, some medications are totally contraindicated in crushing. Best to call a pharmacists to find out for sure.

Answer 4

Never crush a table without asking your Doctor or pharmacist 1st. It can be a very dangerous thing to do, as some pills are coated so as to act as a slow release into the body./

Answer 5

I think it does because some pills are designed to be swallowed whole because each layer is supposed to dissolve in succession. I saw some pill like that in a commercial.

Especially those pills that are clear and have lots of tiny little pills inside because there's a reason why those are like that. Some pills need to get into the stomach to do their work and shouldn't be dissolving prior to the stomach.

Answer 6

Crushing pills to make them easier to swallow can be dangerous for patients' health and possibly even fatal, experts warned yesterday.

Pills are frequently broken up to make them easier to take, especially for older people who may struggle to swallow tablets.

But a working party of pharmacists, GPs and lawyers said yesterday in guidelines being issued to doctors that the process could release the contents of a pill too quickly, leading to potentially harmful reactions.

Answer 7

Ask if they come in liquid form. Some should not be crushed as they could damage your esophagus on the way down.

If it's the taste you dont like as the pharmacist for GEL CAPS. They are plastic little caps and you can put the pill in there and swallow that so you don't taste anything. That way if it takes a while to swallow it you won't have that gross medicinal taste in your mouth.

Answer 8

if they are coated pills,they are not meant to be crushed and are coated for a reason...you could always ask the pharmacist if there is a liquid equivilant to a certain med

Answer 9

I wouldnt say they do. As long as your taking the whole thing then it shouldnt be a big deal.