Warning: Crushing or opening some pills can make them deadly

It may seem like an easy way to take a pill or capsule that’s too big to swallow.

But chewing, crushing or opening a med to sprinkle it on something can have serious, sometimes fatal consequences.

A study recently published in a French drug safety bulletin found that despite package warnings, lots of people are still doing that. And that includes both prescription drugs and OTC meds.

And for certain medications, that can cause a fatal overdose.

Drugs are designed to be absorbed by the body in different ways. Some release the active ingredient over several hours, such as “long-acting” or “extended-release” pills. By chewing or crushing you might get the whole dose at one time.

Others are coated to withstand stomach acid. They work when the pill moves from the stomach to the small intestine. So if you change the “design” of the drug, it won’t work as intended.

The ones that are the most dangerous to chew or crush are the drugs that have a very small difference between a “safe” dose and a toxic one. Things like blood thinners, and heart and high blood pressure meds.

For example, the French review found that digoxin, taken for heart failure and A-fib, if crushed, can cause a possibly fatal heart rhythm – either by making the heart beat too slow or too fast.

So if the pill or capsule you’ve been prescribed looks like a horse pill to you, be sure to ask your doctor or pharmacist if it’s okay to do anything other than just swallow it.

If not, there may be a liquid formula you can take, an alternate drug that can be safely crushed, or a compounding pharmacist that may have another option.

Source:

“With some drugs, crushing tablets or opening capsules could have fatal consequences” Worst Pills Best Pills newsletter, February 2015, worstpills.org