Need Medication Advice: Pill Splitting

officerripley

officerripley

Well-known Member
Location
Porlock, Calif
I know we have some members with medical knowledge and hope someone can help.

I know you're not supposed to split or cut any pill or tablet that doesn't have the "cut here" line on it, but, you guessed it: I did anyway. I cut some over-the-counter tablets without the cut line into quarters since I wanted to try a smaller dose (the first 2 whole tablets I took helped but felt a little strong).

Anyway, the first quarter tab I took didn't do a thing. So I took another quarter and still nothing. So then I took a third quarter and oh boy, no benefit this time but instead side effects aplenty.

So by splitting a tablet that I shouldn't have, did I ruin the tablets? Maybe because of a time-release issue?

Thanks for any help; all the google articles I read were mostly just saying "Don't do it."
 

You didn’t ruin the medicine. You just didn’t take it as prescribed. You should actually talk to your doctor about this.

Having said that , I’m on medicine. When I first started taking these pills, they’d knock me out within 1/2 an hour. The first time , I was out for 17 hours straight. Thats when I started splitting them in 1/2 with a pill splitter.

After a week or so my body adjusted to them, so I started taking them whole, as prescribed.
I’ve been taking them whole for months now.

I’m not sure what pills you are taking, nor am I asking but splitting them up and taking them might not be a good idea. I’m going back “talk to your doctor.’
 
I do a lot of splitting with my pills, mostly my Metoprolol Succinate. But thay do have the cut mark.
I found this:
One way to tell if a pill is likely safe to split is to look for a score line down the middle. You can also check the patient package insert that comes with your medication to see if it's FDA-approved to split. However, just because a medication can be split doesn't mean that it should be.
 

The reason the drug companies do not recommend pill splitting is because the additives that make up the pill may not be equally spread throughout. IOW, if a pill has diphenhydramine in it, maybe 10% is in one half and 90% is in the other half. The pills don’t have the chemicals equally divided throughout the whole pill.
 
What @911 said is exactly spot on. There is a term for the mixing that I can't remember. Years ago on another forum, there was a lady that works actually making pills and she explained it similar to what 911 said. Thing is, she could look up a pill and tell if it was "safe" to split or not. Some that don't have score lines are okay to split and some aren't. Depends on what the pill is and I have no idea how to look it up.

My best advice is to check with your physician.
 
The old man comes to see the doctor.

"Sonny," he says, "I want you to prescribe me some of them Viagry pills. Can you do that?"

"Certainly, I can do that," replies the doctor.

"And I want you to cut each and every one of them things into fourths. Can you do that?"

"Oh, Mr. Jones, that just won't work. In order to get the most out of medications, you have to take them as prescribed. A quarter of a ****** pill won't be sufficient for sex."

"Sonny, I'm 92 years old. I ain't interested in sex no more. I got me a new pair of really nice shoes and I just don't want to pi$$ on 'em!"
 
This is a bit silly, but with laxatives, I definitely cannot take what it says on the pack! I would be in big trouble. So with senokot tablets, I find just a half tablet most days works nicely. If I took one it's too strong and gives me bloating and cramps. Two is out of the question.
We do all react differently to all medication. I get side effects very quickly. Best to consult the doctor for prescription medication though.
 
Pepper said:
How come some manufacturers have the split line and others don't for same medication?
Click to expand...
I would guess it is has more to do with marketing than practice. Drug A brand from a larger manufacturer has 5, 10, 20 mg for example. If you need a different size they offer it. B a smaller company producing 10 and 20 with split marks may be so that the patient's dose can be altered and still remain their customer. Price differences in the filler ingredients could be another reason.
 
Check with doc. I am of understanding some meds should not be split, as split may be uneven. Some pharmacies will split them for you if you have it put in your chart
 


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