dosage formulation

[pharmacology888]

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Hi all,I have a question regarding the dose and duration of action. A few days ago, I had a customer that wanted the 12 hour loratadine b/c the doctor specifically stated it had to be the 12 hour (but we only had the 24 hour). So would it be ok for the customer to cut the 10mg loratidine (24 hour) in half to make it a 5mg tablet so that it would be 12 hours because the 12h formulation does only contain 5 mg of loratatdine? What is the advantage of using 12 h instead of 24 h (considering the it was a child over the age of 6)? Could the customer only take it during waking hours while not when sleeping?And this is a similar question but probably a dumb one, but are there any formulations that if you cut the dose, the dosage form would just release a less amount of drug per hour but the duration of action would remain the same?thanks!

 

[njac]

No.

By cutting it in half you lose the integrity of the release mechanism.

 

[bananaface]

Plain 10mg loratadine is an immediate release formulation. It even comes as melt tabs (Alavert). There should be no issues with release mechanism modification.

I would not recommend tablet splitting, though. It's a hassle, the tablets may not be scored, people cut unevenly, and I would rather not give a little kid a jagged tablet to swallow. You probably just need to send the patient to your OTC kids section. Most places carry Claritin Kids products and their generic in both tablet and liquid form.

 

[pharmacology888]

No.

By cutting it in half you lose the integrity of the release mechanism.

thanks.But I don't understand why the release mechanism would be affected; I understand that you can't cut bi-layer/extended release formulations in half because the outermost layer is responsible for the extended release. So in this case of loratidine, how do I know that this medication cannot be cut in half if the box doesn't state it's extended release formulation or stating it's bilayered?