Is it safe to cut a pill in half to save money, or does that change how the medication works? Which pills are okay to split? 🤔 Thanks!
- Emily W.
Splitting Pills
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Great question Emily, and one we get all the time at the pharmacy. Yes, some pills can be safely split to save money, but not all medications are safe to cut, and doing it incorrectly can lead to underdosing, overdosing, or serious side effects.
Safe to split: Immediate-release tablets that aren’t coated and have a scored line (a groove in the middle) - and only if your doctor or pharmacist confirms it’s okay.
On the other hand, extended release (XR, ER, SR, CR, LA) medication should generally never be split. Cutting or crushing these destroys the time-release mechanism and can end up releasing the entire dose all at one. Some of these are designed to be released in the body over 12 or 24 hours (or longer) and having all that medication getting released at once can be dangerous.
Other medication that should generally not be split or crushed are enteric coated tablets, capsules, or very low dose or particularly dangerous medication which require the dose to be precise (especially if the tablets are extremely small).
As a precaution, it’s always best to ask your pharmacist about the particular medication you are taking if it’s fine to split the dose. If you get the green light, please don’t use a knife to split the doses, always use a tablet splitter. Tablet splitters are inexpensive and are available at most pharmacies.
If you want to save money, ask your doctor or pharmacist if there is a higher dose medication that you safely split. Sometimes a 20mg tablet costs the same as a 10mg tablet, so splitting can make sense if it’s safe to do so.
Be well.
~ Pharmacist Eddie
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