can enteric coated pills be split for half dosage?

Question

is it only sustained release pills that can't be split?

Answer 1

Just like sustained release pills,enteric coated pills should not be split. Splitting enteric coated pills exposes them to the acid in the stomach that can destroy the medication. Another reason is that splitting alters the enteric coating will lose the enteric coating (which helps prevent the tablet from dissolving in the stomach),thus by losing the enteric coating, it will increase the irritation to the stomach. Whereas for the sustained release pill, splitting it will affect the sustained release characteristics and the medicine can be absorbed too quickly.

Answer 2

Jay has a good answer but there is more to it. The stomach is very acid but the acidity drops off further down the digestive tract. Some drugs are made inactive by stomach acid so must be protected from it. This is the function of the enteric coating which is relatively impervious to stomach acid but eventually dissolves in the less acid area. Drugs like pantoprazole and omeprazole have to be coated for this reason. If it is an anti-ulcer drug and one of the names on the pack ends in "prazole" the dose will be wrecked if the pill is split. Same goes for other drugs.

Answer 3

Enteric coated pills are usually coated because the medication typically causes either stomach upset or excessive acid production, or both, e.g. aspirin. Cutting an enteric coated aspirin will obviously negate any benefits of the enteric coating--on the other hand, if you know aspirin does not cause you any problems, then this should cause no problems otherwise.

Answer 4

My CVS pharmacy just (12/13/2014) told me that if you are used to taking uncoated aspirin, it's ok to split the enteric coated variety.