Can you crush or dissolve 1mg Prednisilone Tablets

[HappyDiamonds]

Can anyone tell me if its ok to crush 1mg tablets or dissolve them in water please. I tried putting one in a small amount of water in a glass this morning and it did dissolve. The reason im asking is that I have swallowing problems at the moment. and even taking them in greek yoghurt I feel like they are still stuck. The leaflet says swallow whole with water.

[jaycee444]

I would imagine you could crush them between two spoons and add them to some yoghurt. I don’t think dissolving them is such a good idea as they do irritate the stomach.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I don't see why not - this study

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

found it improved absorption!

This is from a download from East Lancs regarding "Use of non soluble presdnisolone tablets HT Dec 17 (1).pdf" {sic]

"Prednisolone soluble tablets have been assigned a BLACK traffic light by the

East Lancashire Medicines Management Board (ELMMB) for use across the

East Lancashire Health Economy.

The cost of the soluble tablets is significantly more expensive than the plain

(non soluble) tablets (£35.12 for 30 tablets vs £0.76 for 28 tablets).

Depending on the needs of the patient, Prednisolone 5mg plain tablets can be

administered in the following ways:

 The plain tablets will disperse in a small amount of water.

 The tablet can be crushed and mixed with a small amount of soft

food such as yoghurt, honey or jam and swallowed immediately.

 The tablet can be swallowed whole with a drink

It has been reported that the palatability of the dispersed plain tablet and that

of the soluble tablet is the same.

Please note: Whilst the plain tablets satisfactorily disperse in

water, this may take a few minutes"

The worst aspect of crushing pred is its horribly bitter taste.

[HappyDiamonds in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you so much, that is a relief. In water tomorrow morning for sure.

[nuigini in reply to PMRpro]

Maybe I should try this.😀

[Flivoless]

With my latest batch of 1mg Pred, I seem to be "crushing" many of the pills just pushing them out of the bubble strips (Chemist informed) but I've not had any PMR related problems (touch wood) so they do seem to still work.

[Seacat30 in reply to Flivoless]

I had a batch like that last year.

[JanetRosslyn]

Are they enteric coated?

[HappyDiamonds in reply to JanetRosslyn]

No my Rheumy gave strict instructions I was not to have enteric coated.

[HappyDiamonds]

Just for info I took my 3 x 1mg steroid tablets in water this morning. They took a few minutes to dissolve but the taste was blooming awful but at least I didn't have trouble swallowing them so Im happy.😀. Thanks for the replies

[LIVEORDIEHEREIAM]

HappyDiamonds, be aware that trouble swallowing pills can be a symptom of GERD or other esophageal disease and the highly acid pred, even in water, could worsen that. I have trouble swallowing small pills and take my pred with a spoonful of sugar-free gelatin (the kind that comes in 2 or 3 ounce cups). I've been doing that for over a year without any kind of problems... The pills never get stuck. I think the lumpiness of the gelatin somehow helps. Good luck swallowing that bitter pill!

[HappyDiamonds in reply to LIVEORDIEHEREIAM]

Thank you for your advice as I do actually have esophagitis at the moment caused by other medication. Most people including doctors think that small tablets are easy to swallow. The number of times someone has said to me "but these are very small tablets" when in fact they are usually more likely to stay in the oesophagus and cause damage than the large ones.