Scored Pills and splitting medications.

[Gatorchief]

Many people here that are tapering their prednisone dose indicate that at times they take .5 mg or .25 mg dose for weeks to avoid a flare. I haven’t talked to a pharmacist here yet but have gone on line to check what oral prednisone pills are available. The site indicated that 1 mg pills are the lowest dose available. I’m assuming that if the 1 mg pill is scored that it could be cut in half making a .5 mg dose. But .25 mg dose would be very difficult to cut from an unscored .5 mg half of a 1 mg pill. So I’m wondering if they use a Compounding Pharmacy for the .25mg dose?

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Not in UK, most manage with a pill cutter…

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Not usually no - it doesn't matter if the dose isn't accurate, just needs to be less than the last dose. Very few people actually go to the effort of 1/4mg reductions, but cutting a 2.5mg tablet is easier than a 1mg tablet and gives 1.25mg. You can make all sorts of permutations down to that.

[Gatorchief in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you, I didn’t see the 2 1/2 mg listed in available tablets list.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Gatorchief]

It is in some places - the enteric coated version in the UK is a 2,5mg tablet BUT CAN'T BE CUT. However, there are also 2.5mg versions of plain pred.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to Gatorchief]

They are callable in US -this is just one source I found on quick search -

dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailym...