Cutting them in half!

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Sharon Derben - 22 Mar 2006 23:35 GMT

Is it safe to chop a pill in half (Ranitidine 150mg to make 75mg) to make a
half dose - or am I compromising the pills effectiveness in any way please?

Many thanks,

SD

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Susan - 22 Mar 2006 23:58 GMT

> Is it safe to chop a pill in half (Ranitidine 150mg to make 75mg) to make a
> half dose - or am I compromising the pills effectiveness in any way please?
>
> Many thanks,
>
> SD

If it's a time released pill, you'll compromise it. Otherwise, it's
usually fine to do so, and a lot of docs rx pills that are to be cut, to
save patients money.

Susan

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Bill - 23 Mar 2006 03:16 GMT

> x-no-archive: yes
>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> Susan

A caveat to that, if the pills are scored that is almost always fine. If they
are not, you may have difficulty breaking them into equal pieces and some
drugs need tighter dosage control than others. So check with the Dr.

Bill

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Susan - 23 Mar 2006 03:27 GMT

> A caveat to that, if the pills are scored that is almost always fine. If they
> are not, you may have difficulty breaking them into equal pieces and some
> drugs need tighter dosage control than others. So check with the Dr.

Very good point; there's a cheap little plastic pill cutter available at
most pharmacy counters, but it's no guarantee of exact halving.

Susan

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Don Kirkman - 23 Mar 2006 19:35 GMT

It seems to me I heard somewhere that Susan wrote in article
<48efbkFjnkrsU1@individual.net>:

>x-no-archive: yes

>> A caveat to that, if the pills are scored that is almost always fine. If they
>> are not, you may have difficulty breaking them into equal pieces and some
>> drugs need tighter dosage control than others. So check with the Dr.

>Very good point; there's a cheap little plastic pill cutter available at
>most pharmacy counters, but it's no guarantee of exact halving.

True. I'm splitting atenolol 25mg, which are very tiny tablets and very
hard to cut accurately. My doctor and I disagree on whether I really
need atenolol so I'm content to take slightly varying doses day to day.
I would be more concerned with some other medications.

Signature

Don Kirkman

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Joe Doe - 23 Mar 2006 18:51 GMT

> "Susan" <nevermind@nomail.com> wrote in message

> > If it's a time released pill, you'll compromise it. Otherwise, it's
> > usually
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> Bill

One suggestion I read was to only split one pill at a time so even if
the split is slightly uneven you "adjust" the dose the next time you
take the other split half. If you split multiple pills you could have
slightly larger hills and valleys in the dosage.

I know nothing about the safety and advisability of splitting the
original drug.

Roland

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