Crushed pills may make you ill

October 31st, 2006

Having crushed medicinal pills could have serious, even fatal, consequences, on your health.

Experts estimate that over 80% of people find it convenient to crush tablets into powder before swallowing them. Most of those preferring powdered medicine are children and elderly patients. According to the doctors, crushing pills can alter their effect besides affecting the way the drug is released and absorbed in our digestive tract.

A lot of medicines available in the form of tablets have a special coating which prevents the chemical inside from coming in contact with the epithelial lining of your stomach. The medicine is meant to pass through your stomach and reach your intestine for absorption. When crushed the medicine comes into the contact with the stomach wall which may lead to a gastric injury and even bleeding.

A number of medicines, the experts warn, are effective when they are released slowly into your digestive tract. For example, anti-diabetic drug Metformin is meant to be released over 24 hours. Crushing of such medicines would lead to their action lasting only for a limited period only.

According to a drug expert, a tablet may have some binding agents and other accessory chemicals, which often are not spread uniformly across a tablet. Thus consuming even half a tablet with the intention of having half the dosage of the medicine may change their effect when consumed individually at two different times. Hence it may be thoroughly wrong to imagine that breaking a tablet into two would reduce its potency by half.

As has been observed most patients who crush tablets before their intake mix them in juice or milk. This may result into undesirable interaction of drug with the liquid. According to the experts, drugs that are not scored or lined from the centre must never be crushed under any circumstance.

Over 60% of elderly patients have trouble swallowing pills so they prefer crushing them or have them crushed by their nurses. An estimated 75 million prescriptions a year are associated with adverse drug reactions.

Among common medicines that must never be crushed are the antibiotic Amplicillin, blood pressure drug Lisinoprill and pain killer Ibuprofen. Also crushing some bitter medicinal tablets like Cirpoquine and Ciprofloxacin, could result in nausea and vomiting.

Hence, next time you think you cannot swallow a pill, have it with a dollop of dessert, if you like. That will be perfectly fine.

Entry Filed under: Health Issues