Concerns about tablet-splitting of muscle relaxant

Back and neck pain sufferers who divide the most frequently-prescribed muscle relaxant may be getting anywhere from half to one-and-a-half times the amount of medicine they believe they are taking, suggests a new study examining the practice of tablet-splitting. This may place them at an increased risk of encountering side effects such as drowsiness and fatigue from too much medication, according to the study's primary investigator.

Researchers at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, recently conducted a study to determine the level of weight variability of tablet fragments when the muscle relaxant cyclobenzaprine HCl 10mg was split into halves with two commonly-used devices - a tablet splitter and a kitchen knife.

Initiation of the study followed anecdotal reports that patients given a prescription for branded Flexeril (cyclobenzaprine HCl) 5mg tablets were being advised to split generic cyclobenzaprine HCl 10mg tablets instead of taking the 5mg tablet as prescribed by their physician. Flexeril 5mg, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in February 2003, is comparable in efficacy to the 10mg strength, but has been shown to be less sedating.