ACCURACY OF TABLET SPLITTING

We attempted to determine the accuracy of manually splitting hydrochlo rothiazide tablets. Ninety-four healthy volunteers each split ten 25-m g hydrochlorothiazide tablets, which were then weighed using an analyt ical balance. Demographics, grip and pinch strength, digit circumferen ce, and tablet-splitting experience were documented. Subjects were als o surveyed regarding their willingness to pay a premium for commercial ly available, lower-dose tablets. Of 1752 manually split tablet portio ns, 41.3% deviated from ideal weight by more than 10% and 12.4% deviat ed by more than 20%. Gender, age, education, and tablet-splitting expe rience were not predictive of variability. Most subjects (96.8%) state d a preference for commercially produced, lower-dose tablets, and 77.2 % were willing to pay more for them. For drugs with steep dose-respons e curves or narrow therapeutic windows, the differences we recorded co uld be clinically relevant.