The circumstances that you can crush medication is if you cannot really swallow it in pill form and if the pill is not made to be crushed it can sometimes under special circumstances be crushed but can increase side effects and reduce the potency or change the chemical action of the medication.
To know if a medication can be crushed or not you can look on the bottle or package of the label and it will say that it should not be crushed or chewed if it cannot be crushed or if the medication has a score line or line across it then it can be crushed.
You can tell if a pill can be crushed or not by the bottle as the pill will state do not crush if it cannot be crushed.
Or if your tablet or pill has a line down the middle that is an indicator that it's okay to crush or cut the pill.
The medications that should never be crushed are coated tablets and the following medications.
Acetaminophen ER (Tylenol 8HR)
Aspirin EC (Ecotrin)
Bisacodyl (Dulcolax)
Alprazolam ER (Xanax XR)
Bupropion ER (Aplenzin, Forfivo XL, Wellbutrin SR/XL)
Oxycodone ER (OxyContin, Xtampza ER)
Morphine sulfate ER (MS Contin)
Amoxicillin / clavulanate ER (Augmentin XR)
ABBATIN.
Diclofenac / Misoprostol.
Rabeprazole.
Cyclobenzaprine.
Aspirin.
Acxion ap.
Akineton delayed
Estradiol/drospirenone.
Angiotrofin delayed.
Farma Leal ASOFLON LP 0.4 mg 30 Caps.
Atemperator.
Hazardous medications.
Modified release medicines.
Not crushing the medicines is of particular importance with hormonal, cytotoxic or steroidal medications.
If the tablet is crushed, the drug may go into the air and the dose inadvertently be received by the administrating nurse or carer.
Crushing extended-release meds can result in administration of a large dose all at once.
Crushing delayed-release meds can alter the mechanism designed to protect the drug from gastric acids or prevent gastric mucosal irritation.
Crushing sublingual or buccal tabs can alter effectiveness.
Medications may be inappropriate to crush if they have enteric or slow-release coatings; are sublingual or buccal formulations; have the potential to irritate the skin or mouth when crushed; have antineoplastic, cytotoxic, or teratogenic properties; or have a potentially unacceptable taste.
Crushing enteric coated tablets may result in the drug being released too early, destroyed by stomach acid, or irritating the stomach lining.
In general, manipulation of enteric coated and extended-release formulations is not, therefore, recommended.