Get your doctor's ok before you break pills

Are you crushing or splitting your pills? Did you know that breaking the coating or damaging the capsule may be dangerous?

“A lot of medications shouldn’t be crushed or broken because there’s a certain way they are supposed to be dissolved in your system,” says John McNulty, R.Ph., Salem Hospital’s manager of retail pharmacy services.

For example, some pills are coated to prevent dissolving in the stomach. The coating helps them slip through the stomach to be dissolved in the intestine, where they provide the most benefit. If you cut or crush a coated pill, it will dissolve too soon, reducing its effectiveness and possibly irritating your stomach.

If you are splitting your pills because they are difficult to swallow, talk to your pharmacist about safer options. A liquid product may be available. McNulty suggests coating the pill in grape jelly to make it go down more easily.

“If a tablet is scored across the top,” says Richard Proksch, R.Ph., M.S., Salem Hospital’s director of pharmaceutical services, “it is usually safe to partition it.” However, taking only half a pill will reduce your dosage by half, and that may not be enough to provide the intended benefit. In some cases, it could even be dangerous, so be sure to ask your pharmacist and physician if it is okay before you split a scored tablet.

If a pill is not scored, says Proksch, do not cut it. Do not split capsules, either, as there may be only one pearl in the whole capsule that contains the beneficial ingredient. If you split it, one of your doses may have no benefit whatsoever.

If your physician does approve of breaking or splitting one of your prescription drugs, purchase a pill splitter (shown above) from your pharmacy. This is a much safer and easier tool for partitioning pills than a kitchen knife.