Hi there, just wondered if anyone has any bright ideas when it comes to splitting tablets.
As far as I know Pred is available in 1mg and 5mg and 2.5mg 'coated' tablets.
The little tablet splitting device I obtained from Amazon is worse than useless and I have tried blades and just using a knife.
Is there any reason against just taking the 2.5 mg coated tablet alongside the normal white tablets to make up the required dose?
Thanks
I bought my tablet cutting device from Boots pharmacy and it is ideal, having tried it many times.
Personally if you need 0.5mgms I wouldn't try anything else except cutting a tablet.
Good luck.
I hope you are not trying to cut the coated tabs? That is a definite no-no as it simply turns them into a non-coated tab.
I used a mix of coated and non-coated several times while reducing. All you need remember is that generally speaking, non-coated tabs take about 1-2 hours to work, but the coated ones are more like 5-6 as they are absorbed low down in the gut.
I bought a pill cutter from Poundland years ago. It works very well and I still use it from time to time.
No don't have any coated tablets at present. Am down to 7.5 mg and have wasted some tablets trying to cut them but will try a different cutter. Thanks
Think you may have just been unlucky, my pill cutter from Boots has done very well.
You do need to get the tablet in just the right place, and then squeeze reasonably firmly. They are really too small to try with a knife or ordinary blade.
When you're still on higher doses you can mix and match, but once you get really low then you are going to need to cut the 1mg.
Thanks - yes will try the Boots version as I plan to stay at 7.5 for at least a month. Just seems daft when we are all trying to reduce slowly by halves that there isn't a 1.5 or 2.5 uncoated tablet made.
Would hazard a guess that's down to money - what isn't? Or demand. The manufacturers probably don't know that some of their customers need a 0.5mg dose if nobody has told them. But it certainly would make life easier for lots of people.
The enteric coated are 2.5mg and 5mg then 1mg is uncoated. I was told you should not mix and match, but I know a lot of people who do and they do not seem to have problems. As polkadotcom says the coated ones get to your gut before being absorbed by the body while the uncoated can be absorbed immediately in the stomach so there is a timing issue. The advantage of the coated ones is that they do not affect the stomach like uncoated ones sometimes do. I actually take a new special coated version which comes in 1mg, 2mg and 5mg.
I am afraid that this is a question - rather than a reply! Perhaps you would be kind enough to let me know who are the manufacturers of the coated 1mg, 2mg. etc. I live in Ireland and was wondering if my pharmacy could source them. The lowest strength COATED tablet here seems to be the 2.5. I am on 4mg Thank you and thank you to everybody who contributes so generously to this forum. I have found it very helpful!
They are called Lodotra. In some countries they can only be obtained on a private prescription at the moment. See what your pharmacy says.
Thank you SO much Piglette! You are very good to take the time to get back to me. I will certainly enquire from my pharmacist. I pay full price for all my prescriptions as I do not have a Medical Card (Medical Card services is something like NHS) So I would hope that I can order them. I will keep you posted!
Just a thought Lodotra may be called Rayos in Ireland, but the pharmacy should help anyway. Good luck.
Lodotra 1mg tablets (2mg and 5mg as well) all cost about 27 euros for 30 tablets (local price in Italy, about the same in the UK) - which makes it pretty pricey as you may need 3 or 4 tablets to make up your dose and that means about 80+ euros a month.
I use Lodotra and I know another lady in in Germany who has been switched to it and is being able to manage on a lower dose. I think it is great - but it doesn't cost me more than a prescription charge.
Thanks for your reply. That's interesting - I did not know there was a coated version of the 1, 2, and 5mg.
I brought a pill cutter from my local pharmacy. I find that it is best to position the 5mg tablet with the line on the tablet under the blade.
,Hi.I was having trouble spitting my 5mg tablet, they kept shattering in my tablet cutter.Place line on tablet inline with blade and then give it sharp quick rap with heel of hand ( not slow). Seems to work for me.
First of all - YOU MUST NOT CUT THE COATED TABLETS!
There is no real reason for not mixing coated and uncoated tablets - except that the coated tablets take about 5 to 6 hours or even longer to be absorbed while uncoated are absorbed in about 40 mins to 1 hour. One way of dealing with that is to take the coated ones at night before bed - and they will be working by the time you get up - and take the balance of your dose when you get up or even later if you have symptoms returning in the evening. In that way the coated sort would work in the same way as the Lodotra coated sort except Lodotra break down to be absorbed after 4 hours, the coating is different from the enteric coated sort.
There are various sorts of pill cutter - the one we bought from the chemist is fine, although I do find mine easier to use than the one my husband has. They are the same basic design but are very slightly different. It is possible to break uncoated rounded pills by laying them on a hard surface and pressing on opposite sides with your thumbs - they usually break nicely in half.
However - to smooth the reduction without 1/2mg drops this reduction scheme does work well:
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