My son has been taking vimpat 100 mg twice a day. His doctor wants to taper him to 50 mgs twice a day. Can I split the 100 mg pills? I am not sure if Vimpat is extended release or not. I have already asked my pharmacist, and he is trying to find the answer.
vimpat question
- Thread starter DinaHB
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Vimpat is not yet available in an extended release version, and it's half-life is only 13 hours. It IS available in the 50mg dose size -- your son's doc should go ahead and prescribe the 50s for tapering purposes, rather than have you mess around with splitting the 100s.
(It is possible to split the pills, but carries potential risk depending on how sensitive your son's metabolism is to slight variations in dosage or absorption. For some folks it might not make a difference, but for others it might).
(It is possible to split the pills, but carries potential risk depending on how sensitive your son's metabolism is to slight variations in dosage or absorption. For some folks it might not make a difference, but for others it might).
stuartbungle
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I also agree with Nakamova
It would definitely be better to get the 50mg pills.
But just in case you need to split the pills, it is possible to do that successfully with Vimpat. We were in a situation for a while in which I needed to split the 100mg pills - my daughter was taking 150mg twice a day, and if we got one script for 100mg pills and one for 50mg pills it would have doubled our already outrageous copay from $300/month to $600/month. So we just got enough 100mg pills and split them. They were pretty easy to half with a pill splitter and doing it that way did not cause any issues for her.
But just in case you need to split the pills, it is possible to do that successfully with Vimpat. We were in a situation for a while in which I needed to split the 100mg pills - my daughter was taking 150mg twice a day, and if we got one script for 100mg pills and one for 50mg pills it would have doubled our already outrageous copay from $300/month to $600/month. So we just got enough 100mg pills and split them. They were pretty easy to half with a pill splitter and doing it that way did not cause any issues for her.