🙂
Some medicines warn you not to BREAK or CHEW the tablet...only swallow ex:Mucinex...... If i just ate it by chewing it is is it still going to work? Is it useless now? I know its supposed to be swallow so it dissolves slowly but I cant swallow.
The warning DO NOT CHEW OR BREAK applies to sustained-release products (also called controlled release). This formulation is often recognized as XL, CR, SR, ER etc. at the end of the drug name (e.g. procardia XL or ambian CR). You will learn all about this unique design of drug delivery system in pharmacy school, particularly in pharmaceutics where various dosage forms are discussed. THe opposite of SR is IR=immediately release; this form releases all the drug AT ONCE to your blood.
What this design (sustained release) does is that it allows a more STEADY level of drug in your blood over an extended period of time (meaning your blood has almost the same effective concentration of the drugs for a long time). The apparent advantage to this formulation is that it reduces dosing frequency ie reducing the number of times per day you have to take the drug, which thus enforces patient compliance (people remember to take the drug more if it's prescribed for once a day vs 3 times a day).
In layman's term, pill ABC IR releases 200mg of the drug in your blood for 8 hours. To have the effect of drug ABC the entire day, you would need 3 tablets of ABC IR. Meanwhile, pill ABC SR (sustained release) contains 3 times the amount of drug in 1 pill ABC IR. But you take only 1 tab of ABC SR a day. It will gradually dissolve in your system to release the same amount of the drug compared to 3 pills ABC IR over a day. So if you chew or break pill ABC SR (sustained release form), ALL of its content will be released into your system AT ONCE. So you basically receive 3 times the dose at the moment => you can be overdosed immediately!!! This is extremely dangerous with antihypertensive drugs likfe Procardia XL. Why? Because the patient chewing the tab literally poisons himself with 3 times the dose and his blood pressure will drop dramatically => pass out, faint.... There are law suits involving nurses breaking these SR products to feed through nasogastric tube to the patient. By doing so, they basically increase the amount of drugs in the patient's blood all at once!
If you can't swallow, you should ask for the liquid form of the drug or use something else similar that comes in smaller pills or liquid. Last time I checked, mucinex is available in liquid for kids. I don't know if they've made liquid for adult yet.
Good luck with admission this year
🙂
