Pills that are quite large and hard to swallow

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Philip Sorensen - 20 Apr 2004 00:52 GMT

I am working on a project pertaining to medications (Rx and OTC) that the
elderly find hard to swallow by virtue of the size of the medication or
pill. I know that vitamins, supplements, and even KCl tablets to maintain
blood pressure are generally large - making them more difficult to swallow.
There must be others.

Would anyone be kind enough to share any specific medications or therapeutic
categories where pill size is an issue? I am especially interested in the
Rx medications (generics mainly), and those that are taken daily for chronic
conditions.

Thank you in advance for any insights you might be able to provide.

Best regards,

Philip Sorensen
==
Advanced Technology Innovations, Inc.
100 Petaluma Blvd. N, #303
Petaluma, CA 94952
Ph: 707-285-2020 Fx: 707-988-2616
Email: philip@atiincusa.com
http://www.atiincusa.com

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Lyn Bruzaud - 20 Apr 2004 03:40 GMT

> I am working on a project pertaining to medications (Rx and OTC) that the
> elderly find hard to swallow by virtue of the size of the medication or
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> Email: philip@atiincusa.com
> http://www.atiincusa.com

Glucophage (Metformin) 1000mg

Also, my lady almost chocked on a 1000 Vit C

LB

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Sam - 20 Apr 2004 05:10 GMT

-Effexor XR 150 mg capsules. Holy crap the capsule is huge! (Maybe they
should call it Effexor XL haha)
-Zoloft 100 mg
-Dilacin C 300 mg
- PMS-Metformin 500 and 1000mg
-I've had a couple patients complain to me about choking on Strattera
capsules too.

Sam

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Kay Lancaster - 20 Apr 2004 10:42 GMT

> I am working on a project pertaining to medications (Rx and OTC) that the
> elderly find hard to swallow by virtue of the size of the medication or
> pill. I know that vitamins, supplements, and even KCl tablets to maintain
> blood pressure are generally large - making them more difficult to swallow.
> There must be others.

I've also seen elderly folks with problems swallowing pills on the
other end of the size spectrum, like half a 4 mg warfarin tablet,
5 mg prednisone, etc., while a large vitamin pill or capsule goes
down just fine. It isn't a matter of the pill being too small to
pick up easily (though that's certainly an issue in compliance), but
with actually swallowing the medication. FWIW.

Kay Lancaster kay@fern.com (botanist)

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Bill - 20 Apr 2004 15:55 GMT

Something interesting... One-a-day men's vitamins had a coating on them
which made them easy to go down. They have recently changed their pills and
they are now quite difficult to swallow.

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John Malins - 21 Apr 2004 22:13 GMT

> Something interesting... One-a-day men's vitamins had a coating on them
> which made them easy to go down. They have recently changed their pills and
> they are now quite difficult to swallow.
>
> I take 12x tabs a day.the problem I find is getting them out of those

blister packs, very fiddly, the foil is to tough and they take up a lot of
space in the bedside drawer and when one has arthritis its even more
difficult. what happened to those brown plastic bottles they used to supply
tabs in. well I'm off now to struggle with those dam plastic foil things
again its 2200 hrs ..john.m

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Gregory Poon - 20 Apr 2004 17:00 GMT

Cipro 750 mg tabs, Clavulin 850 mg tabs. Giant suckers.
Divaproex Na 500 mg tabs. Not small.

Signature

Gregory M. K. Poon, Ph.D., R.Ph., B.Sc.Phm.
Departments of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemical Engineering
University of Toronto

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Patricia - 30 Apr 2004 11:10 GMT

I am not sure what background you have but perhaps you should speak to a
speech pathologist who will be able to speak to you about dysphagia and
assosciated problems swallowing medications. If you find one who works with
a client group that traditionally has swallowing problems (eg ABI,
Huntingtons, stroke) they would be able to talk to you about problem tablets
and what they do about them currently.
good luck :)
B

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