A question about prescription pill use

Factual Questions
1

I am currently on a couple different medications for anxiety and with one of them I am now taking 30mg a day, 15 in the morning and 15 when I go to bed. Due to my move for the summer I had to change pharmacies and now instead of taking the 15mg pills they have me on pills that come in 10mg, no big deal though because I just take one and a half in the morning and at night. But my question is this:

Would the pills be more “effective” if instead of taking the one and a half in the morning and at night I just took one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one at night? Would that one in the afternoon be more potent and give me more of its desired effect because I’m giving my body the extra boost of a fresh pill as opposed to having it be all at once in the morning and then all at once in the evening? I must say I am kind of ignorant as to how pills work so I was really just curious about if this would help me

Thanks a bundle!!

2

IANAD or pharmacist, but I have a little bit of experience in drug design.

There is no straight answer to this, simply because every drug is different and you haven’t said what drugs you are on. Mostly, though, it’s because every drug is different – what is true for one isn’t true for another, as a rule of thumb.

The dosing regimen that you are on is one that has been tested and reported back as being effective and so is one that the manufacturer recommends to the doctor (who then prescribes it to you). The change in dosing regimen that you are suggesting may or may not be something that is done with that particular medication; without knowing more, it’s hard to say.

Each drug is different. When something is prescribed twice a day, it’s often because the level of the drug in your system drops below some “effective level” after some time, and the second dose brings it back up or maintains a high level. For some drugs, you don’t ever want to drop below a certain amount, because of side effects, withdrawal or the seriousness of the disease. For other drugs, it doesn’t matter much. For some, the “effective level” might be (totally made up numbers) 75 units in your blood, but even after 12 hours you’re really only down to 87 units, so there’s no benefit to having more frequent dosing and twice-a-day is just a convenient way to prescribe something.

The other thing to consider is that medicines interact and sometimes interfere with one another. Because you are on more than one medicine, it might be best for your health to keep the drug in question below, say, 120 units in order to prevent complications with the other drugs, so you have a more spaced-out dosing regimen.

There are a lot of factors to consider, and your best bet is to talk to your doctor and pharmacist and see what they have to say. They will look at the medical condition(s) you are treating, the rest of the drugs you are on, the pharmacokinetic behaviour of the drugs and determine whether changing your regimen makes sense.

If the only reason you want to do it, though, is because you don’t want to take the time to split the 10mg tablets, then ask your pharmacist to do it when they dispense it to you. I know my local pharmacist doesn’t mind doing this, as long as they are given a head’s up and a bit more time to get your prescriptions ready.

3

Oh, and since the drug in question is on a 12 hour regimen,it’s probably a controlled release medication. You aren’t ever getting the drug “all at once” in the morning and then again in the afternoon; depending on the coating and design it may take up to 6 or 8 hours or more for 100% of the drug to be released from the tablet/capsule itself, let alone reach maximum concentration in your blood. The idea is to maintain an effective dose, not spike the patient once in a while with something and hope it lasts. :slight_smile:

4

Ask your pharmacist. That’s what they are trained to know.

5

Yeah, without even knowing what class of anti-anxiety drugs you’re on, it’s impossible to say. SSRI? MAOI inhibitor?

6

It’s some weak little thing called Busperone (or Buspar).

I have it paired with Selexa. The dosage and everything for Selexa stayed the same it’s just the Buspar that changed.

7

Ah. Buspar as a supplement to SSRIs is an off-label use, typically prescribed at 2-3 times a day. While your plan makes sense, I urge you to speak to your doctor before doing it. Buspar is not a controlled release formulation, so its duration of efficacy is mostly related to its moderate half-life, a certain persistence of effect, possibly an active metabolite, and just maybe a broad therapeutic range. Your mileage may vary. Ask your doctor.

8

In shory, it can take weeks to accumulate. Perhaps.googlr thay and see what you can find other than this snippet:

It may take several weeks before its anxiolytic effects become noticeable. Many patients may also require a higher dosage to adequately respond to treatment. [1] In a study of diazepam and buspirone in GA.

Its wikipedis but it is cited. I’d type more but I hate typing on a phone.

Good luck working things out, Sir

9

I doubt that this particular medication is extended release as the pharmacist would not advise the OP to split the pill. By doing so one would be in danger of overdose as the coating or casing of the pill is designed to dissolve over a specific time frame in order to release the drug in a known dosage. Cutting the pill runs the risk of immediate release of the medication.

10

I’ve also been on Buspar since March, so the effects are very well placed and already working within my system, I just have moments during the day sometimes when I wish I had a pill that I could take “in emergency situations” that would be fast acting. Granted that’s not what the Buspar is for but If I could get an extra shot in the middle of the day I think that might help me in the every-once-in-a-while’s that happen when I wish I had a fast acting medication

11

Good point - I didn’t even think of that! I was just thinking in general about extended release stuff and forgot that the OP was talking about things that he split. :smack:

I don’t know how Buspar works beyond what’s been mentioned in this thread, but whatever you’re looking for it sounds like Buspar won’t do it.

Talk to your doctor to see if there is anything that could do this, but - from a non-doctor point of view of someone who doesn’t know you at all - it sounds more like a psychological issue than a physiological one. It sounds a little like you’d take a pill and feel better not because the drug actually helped, but because you believe the drug is a fix for whatever is bugging you. In other words, you sound like someone looking for a placebo (hell, I do it myself, with OTC sleeping pills every couple of months…I don’t want to bother trying to fall asleep, which I struggle with, so I take a pill on the assumption that I’ll struggle and I don’t want to bother dealing with it).

I may be wrong about that - and if I am, I’m sorry. Seems some people do take Buspar 3 times a day, so your doctor might tell you to do it if he or she feels its worthwhile. Talk it over with him or her; there may be other, more applicable options for you.

12

Ya know I can’t really disagree with you on this. I think since I’ve been taking the medications that I’m on I do notice that they do work overall, so I don’t think I’m just placebo-ing my way to happiness and calm living. However, I do think the random times during the day that something strikes me I do feel the need to take something and probably will just convince myself they work simply because I took something…which I guess I don’t mind since, you know, still feeling it and all.

I also totally do the same thing you do with the sleeping pills. Lord knows if they actually work or not, but I sure do love taking them at least to think that they work.