Grinding Carbidopa hallucinations

[Onepainter]

My father along with Parkinson's has dysphasia and has trouble swallowing. He has trouble swallowing a large number of pills. With that being said, he now has trouble taking his pills and has choked several times. I decided to grind his pills including the time release Carbidopa 50/levodopa 200mg. I started doing this about three weeks ago. At approximately the same times he started to "see" things in our home along with not knowing where he is. Could this be the result of the grinding the pills.

[ronn]

II believe that the Time Release Carbidopa depends on its large size and compact nature to achieve its purpose, a slow,steady release of its active ingredients. It would seem that grinding it could cause major changes in the delivery svhedule.

[park_bear in reply to ronn]

Agreed. Do NOT grind time-release pills.

[ronn in reply to park_bear]

Most of us have the problem and would agree, Too many %$#&%* pills.. My only other advice would be to make sure that the pills and the inside of the mouth are wet with water before the pills are introduced. Dry pills touching inner mouth surfaces attatch themselves quite quickly.

[ddmagee1]

I have dysphasia too, and have to break down some bigger pills, because of PD, and swallowing/choking problems. I do not take time release Carbidopa/Levodopa, though. I take the regular Sinemet Carbidopa/Levodopa. I have not had any “ seeing " things episodes or episodes of not knowing where I am. My advice would be to have a neurologist's or movement disorders specialist evaluation of these symptoms A.S.A.P.

[Dnw876a]

Extended release or controlled release rely on special binders other than the med for slow release of the med in the system (for more details see Wikipedia: modified -release dosage). By crushing the pills the whole dose of medication, which was supposed to slowly release is available immediately.

To hypothetically illustrate: A 10 hour 100 mg. med would yield an immediate dose of 1000 mg. You should not grind or crush SR. CR, or ER meds.

I have broken pills like huge potassium or antibiotics in half without this cumulative effect following; one half break not releasing all the med at once.

But my favorite means after the patient has difficulty swallowing at that time is a small chunk of banana or pudding artfully wrapped around the med. If the patient has Alzheimer’s or dementia the first spoonful really needs to have all the medicine you can fit. As The majority of times the patient won’t take a second bite of medicine-laden pudding after tasting the admixture in first spoonful. I speak from 7 years of professional med administration in a level II trauma hospital!

Too, check with your doctor and see if the med is available in sprinkles. The Depakote I professionally administer, via doctor’s orders, usually for mood stabilization or seizures in my hospital surrounding is available in sprinkles actually more for compliance, (to avoid patient cheeking the med and later subsequently spitting out later privately) and is easily mixed into jello or pudding.

I hope this helps- Daniel RN and fellow ‘parkie’.

[Dnw876a]

Postscript: a transdermal patch, injection or implanted medication pump would also bypass the oral rout as well.

[mymomhaspd]

My mom has a GI Tube and all the meds are given through that - and I thought they put her on extended release , at least thats what dad siad , but the explanation given above by Dnw876a totally makes sense .