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Study: Tablet splitting may be dangerous

Metformin tablets, which are included in Wal-Mart's $4 prescription plan, sit on the shelf at a Wal-Mart store in Chicago on October 19, 2006. Wal-Mart's $4 generic prescription program, which was launched in Florida and includes 314 generic prescription drugs, was expanded to an additional 14 states on Thursday. (UPI Photo/Brian Kersey)
Metformin tablets, which are included in Wal-Mart's $4 prescription plan, sit on the shelf at a Wal-Mart store in Chicago on October 19, 2006. Wal-Mart's $4 generic prescription program, which was launched in Florida and includes 314 generic prescription drugs, was expanded to an additional 14 states on Thursday. (UPI Photo/Brian Kersey) | License Photo

GHENT, Belgium, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- People who split tablets may have serious consequences because tablets have a narrow margin between therapeutic and toxic doses, researchers in Belgium say.

Study leader Dr. Charlotte Verrue and colleagues at Ghent University in Belgium had five study subjects -- a pharmacy student, a researcher, a professor, an administrative worker and a laboratory technician -- split eight different-sized tablets using a splitting device, scissors and a kitchen knife. Only the technician had tablet-splitting experience.

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The study, published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, found 31 percent of the tablet fragments deviated from their theoretical weight by more than 15 percent and 14 percent deviated by more than 25 percent.

"Tablet-splitting is widespread in all healthcare sectors and a primary care study in Germany found that just under a quarter of all drugs were split," Verrue says in a statement.

"It is done to increase dose flexibility, to make tablets easier to swallow, to save money for both patients and healthcare providers and when the prescribed dose is not commercially available."

The splitting device was the most accurate method, but it still produced a 15 percent to 25 percent error margin in 13 percent of cases, Verrue says.

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