Can a Strattera capsule be opened and sprinkled in food?

Answer 1

I have done extensive research & networking to try to find another way for my 7 year old son to take Strattera. He simply could not learn how to swallow the pill. Yes, Eli Lilly says not to open the capsule. According to 2 compounding pharmacists I spoke with, this is because 1) it is very very bitter tasting (I tasted it; it is) and 2) it may cause irritation of the throat, esophagus, stomach, etc. and lead to nausea/throwing up. The two pharmacists assured me that sprinkling it in food or drinks will in no way alter its effectiveness. It is not a time release capsule; you are putting a consistent amount of Strattera in your body every day over a prolonged time to get the effect. That is why you don't see any results until after you have taken it for 2 to 3 weeks.

That being said, we morphed the Strattera into many, many different forms: 1) We started by putting it in a smoothie (10mg). This worked great until my son got sick of drinking smoothies every day for 4 weeks and until we upped the dosage from 10 to 20 mg and made it even more bitter. 2) I had it compounded into a grape flavored liquid at the Compounding Pharmacy. Yuk! It did taste awful (again, I tried it). 3) We tried breaking open the capsule in a spoonful of Hershey syrup and then adding more Hershey syrup on top. This worked pretty well but only for a few days. The chocolate syrup really masks the taste of the Strattera. That is the key if you are going to break it open, to find something with a strong enough flavor to mask the taste. We tried chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, even chili! Also recommended to me but not tried was to sweeten it with regular sugar, Splenda or other fake sugars, vanilla flavoring. 4) We had the Strattera compounded into a transdermal gel. We tried this for 3 weeks but found that even at a 20mg application, it didn't seem like my son was absorbing any of it through his skin. This method fascinated me the most and I would not have even know about it unless I had done internet research and networked with the compounding pharmacists. Apparently, this is the new wave of medications and a very viable form of delivering medication now days. The hitch is that you really do not know how much actually gets absorbed into the body. You have to judge by how your child is behaving. We did not see any benefit with the transdermal gel like we did when he was taking it in a smoothie! You rub it on an area where the skin is very thin -- typically the area from the inside wrist to the elbow.

If you are looking for alternative ways to administer Strattera, my advice would be to call around to all of the compounding pharmacies in your city. Really talk to them and get information about how they can compound the Strattera into a different form and add different flavoring. For children, it is all about taste and we simply couldn't get over the hump of the extremely bitter taste, no matter how hard we tried to mask it. It is a shame, because I really felt like I saw benefit when my son was on the Strattera. It was a good match for him, but he is just to immature to swallow a pill. So now we are trying Daytrana -- fingers crossed!

Oh, and one more thing. The compounding fee typically in NOT covered by insurance. One way to get around this is to get a larger dosage prescribed and then compound it into the liquid or gel and only take/apply as much as you need. That would be one way to keep the cost down.

I am a pharmacist and have a daughter on Strattera. Called Lilly and they said it should not be opened and sprinkled in anything. Tried it anyway at 40 mg...you know us pharmacist. My daughter complained instantly of stomach cramps and vomited within 30 minutes. When down on the dose per MD advise, but this time I took it to a friend of mine and had it compounded into a suspension. It can be made a any concentration and flavored any flavor. It is very bitter, so I would reccommend a citrus flavor. Look in the phone book for a compounding pharmacy like Medicine Shopp or a similar pharmacy. Also your local pharmacist will probally know who in town can compound. Hope this helps!!

I am a 40 year old male. I took 40mg dose and didn't like the sexual side effects. I tryed 25mg with same side effects. My doctor told me to try breaking the 40mg in half. I tryed it in water (tastes bad but no problems) and I tryed it in food with no problems.

I don't know if it should be opened and sprinkled in food, but I do know that taking any pill is easier for my children and myself if we take it with a thick drink such as Purity chocolate milk. This helps because the liquid hides the pill and makes it almost like just drinking the chocolate milk. Hope this helps you.

My brother-in-law is a pharmacist and he called the manufacturer to see if you could open Straterra. They said you could on the lower doses (less than 90 mg)

Think about it, when you swallow a pill it dissolves in your stomach in less than five minutes. What would it matter if it were sprinkled? The manufacturers said not to sprinkle it at first because no studies had been done on that form of dosing and were afraid of lawsuits.

I give it to my son in the Ensure milk stuff that he loves to drink every morning. He drinks it with a straw so I am sure he "sucks" all the medication up.

He has been having crying spells off and on but we have been only on it for 9 days. We'll see what happens.

These manufacturers should know that most children and a lot of adults have trouble swallowing pills and should have thought of an easier form of dosage.

Strattera made into a transdermal gelAfter much searching and family stress in trying to get Strattera into my 6 year old son who has a feeding disorder and out of control ADHD, I have found an alternative solution. He can't swallow a pill and eats only an extremely limited selection of foods. (Only two of his foods are possibilities for putting medication in.) Since Strattera is extremely bitter, I pretty much couldn't disguise it enough to get it past him in any food. At the 25mg and 40mg dosages, I could sort of hide it, but we absolutely could not get 60mg into him in any food! It seemed that he was tolerating the medicine well and been having more good days at school so I was extremely dissapointed that our program was being derailed because we couldn't get the medication into him. The pharmacy we use said they couldn't make it a flavored liquid unless it was already in that form from the manufacturer. So I found a compounding pharmacy and discussed my problem with them. At first they said they could make it into a liquid and I asked could they make it into a patch because I didn't have much hope in any flavoring being able to disguise the bitter taste. The compounding pharmacy lab then said they had made it into a transdermal gel for some of their clients. I immediately felt a renewed since of hope! My son weighs almost 70 lbs and was on 60mg orally, but was initially stepped down to 40mg transdermally. He has been on it for almost a year and we are convinced we are seeing much improvement in his behavior. Our compounding pharmacy also makes the mood stabilizer Valproic Acid he takes in conjunction with Strattera into a suppository since we couldn't get that in him by oral routes either. So for you parents out there that need an alternative form of this medication, a transdermal gel might be the answer. This is a new frontier as far as the transdermal delivery of this particular medication as not much information is out there on it.

My granddaughter could not swallow the capsule. She is 7 we tried everything. We then tried mixing it in different foods. It is so terribly bitter she would just gag. It worked wonderfully when we could get enough down her, which was seldom. After 2 months of this ordeal I took it to a compounding pharmacy. He made it into a topical ointment! We pick it up tomorrow and will see if it works. He says it will work, so I have a lot of hope, can't wait to try it. He also told me he called Lilly to get information about compounding and they refused to give him any info about if it should be compounded in a water base or oil base. I think that stinks! Will let you know how the topical works.

YOU SHOULD NOT SPRINKLE IT IN FOOD. BUT THE SAMPLE THE DOCTOR'S GIVE DOESN'T SAY THAT. THAT IS WHEN IT FIRST CAME OUT. NOT SURE IF THEY CHANGED THAT OR NOT IN SAMPLE INSTRUCTIONS. THE DATA I RECIEVED WITH MY DUAGHTER'S MED NEVER METION IT.ANYHOW, IF YOU CALL A PHARMACY THEY DON'T NO. SO, I CALLED THE COMPANY THEY SAID NOT TO DO IT. NO STUDIES HAVE DONE ON IT YET. WHICH MAKES ME WONDER HOW THEY CAN EVEN PUT IT ON THE MARKET WITH OUT TESTING IT. MY DAUGHTER VOMITED IT UP ALOT AND MADE BAD STOMACH ACHES AND HEADACHES.

My 8 year old has been on Straterra just about 20 days. We had such a problem getting the capsule down, I called the doctor to see if it could be put in food. She called the drug rep and he said it would not affect the effectiveness of the drug, but he didn't recommend it because he hadn't heard of anyone tolerating the medicine this way. What I tried (and it works most of the time) is putting a layer of pudding on a spoon, then the medicine, then another layer of pudding. I don't mix it up, because it is very bitter. He takes the spoon and tries to swallow without mixing it up in his mouth. He can still taste it sometimes, but he has been able to keep it down.

My son Aaron has been taking Strattera for about a year.He had the same problem taking the capsule.So about three months ago we started putting it in honey.Aaron is doing better taking it with the honey.If anyone knows for sure this should not be done ,please let us know.I did have the drug store check this out before we tryed this.

I have had trouble for quite some time with getting my 6 year old daughter to swallow this pill. It has been a horrible experience. We have tried bribery, and mixing in different things. You name it we did it! Chocolate pudding works well for a short time but now she absolutely hates it! I called the pharmacy after reading some suggestion from this site to find out if he could make a suspension for me. He gave me many suggestions to try while he researched the suspension. Of course I tried most of the but one. He said that most people don't take a capsule correctly or teach or children correctly. Capsules float in the water or liquid you are swallowing with. So when you tilt your head backwards the capsule floats to the front of the mouth and the liquid goes down first. So you need to tilt your head slightly forward when swallowing and the capsule will float to the back of the mouth and go down first followed by the liquid! Now the hard part.....convincing a 6 year old child that is horrified of swalling a pill to try it. After my suggestions and after chasing after her running off and locking herself in her room. A little bribery and a promise that she would only have to try it 2 times...IT WORKED the first try! My daughter was so excited! Now she is looking forward to the next days pill! I hope this owrks for someone else like it did for me!

My 4 year old cannot swallow pills, so I asked the autism specialist if I could open it & put in food or drink & he said yes (very small dose: 10 mg.). This is day 4. Day 1 was awful and I quickly realized this stuff is super bitter. A friend recommended mixing with peanut butter because the PB flavor is strong. I tried it and he's taken it 2 days now. I mix it with a tsp. & 1/2 PB in a little dish and he eats it w/ a spoon.

Think about it... A 100 mg capsule costs the same as a 50 or 25mg. They may say "swallow" the capsule whole so you do not cut your costs in half by splitting the capsule in half. Ask your pharm the costs of the diffent sizes.... likewise, if anyone is taking two tablets a day, he ro she is paying twice as much. So take 1 80, not two 40's. Of course ask your doctor...

I have a 5 yr old daughter that's been taking Straterra for 5 days. She has had health problems all of her life and has always been medicated for various problems. All of her meds only come in pill form. What I did was tell her that swallowing a pill or capsule was no different than swallowing a kernel of corn. (she wanted to chew the pills like food) I reminded her that there are many times that she doesn't chew each kernel of corn and she swallows it whole. That has worked for both of my kids and they have no problems at all swallowing pills. The 5 yr old has been swallowing pills since 3 yrs of age. Thought maybe this would give you all a different idea to try.

We do split strattera for my husbands ADHD becasue we are uninsured and Strattera is EXPENSIVE. What we do is get the prescription for double the dose he is to take. At first we did try to put it in food, but it tastes horrible. No stomach aches though.So then we went to the health food store, and bought empty gelatin capsules for like 3.00 . Every other month when we renew the script, we immediatley go home and i open the capsules and dump half of each into the new capsule, then seal them. It has been working the same as before. Now my husband is a poor metaboliser of the drug so he only needs 30mg. We can get a 60 mg. script. If youre on a higher dose, this isn't easily done as it doesnt come higher than 60 mg to my knowledge. We were also told about compounding it, but had a difficult time finding a compounding pharmacy, so went with this option instead. Good Luck! Oh and btw, i agree that the whole "don't ever open it" thing by Eli Lilly is aimed at discouraging people from doing exactly what im doing.

My 5-year-old son was prescribed Strattera this past week and I was really suprised when I got it to see adult size capsules! I highly suggest getting a bite-size amount of Jello (just enough to surround the capsule) and sticking the pill in the middle of it. The Jello holds the capsule in place and it will slide right down the throat! I wouldn't recommend ice cream though since it melts quickly in the mouth and the capsule may slide out. A bite size amount of Jelly works well also!

My 6 year old just started taking Straterra & his Doctor said you do not get the same results if you sprinkle the capsule on food. She said it should be swallowed whole to get the best results. We sprinkled other medicines we tried in applesauce, but once I heard that the results of Straterra would be affected, he's been swallowing the pill. I do give it to him in a teaspoon of applesauce.

My 4 year was having trouble swallowing the pills so I called my local pharmacy and had it made into a compound flavored with grape.

After I got it home, I opened it and tasted it and was suprised to see that it STILL tasted very bitter and awful, so we are back to square one. The stuff works wonders for my child but there have been no studies as to what effect Strattera will have on the body when opened, so I am feeling very apprehensive about the whole thing.

I will maybe try another flavor next time like Citrus..

My son is 7 years old and gets hysterical when he thinks he has to take the strattera. I tried talking to him about it, I tried rewards and even punishment. Finally, gave in and have been putting in peanut butter. Called the pharmacist and they did not know. Called Lilly the maker and they said they could not recommend it because no study had been done with opening the capsule. They did say they are working on alternatives to the capsule for the children like ours that can not take the pills. I really do not want to place him on a different medicine, because all the others are stimulants. Thanks for all of your experiences it has helped knowing we are not alone.

What works best for us is sprinkling the medicine on top of frozen juice concentrate and then putting more concentrate on top of medicine. I freeze the spoons too because it can melt quickly.We did find a pharmacy that compounds. It is an oily base, citrus flavored. It cost $200 for a month. Not much more than the capsules, but insurance did not cover it.

Answer 2

Probably notI am not sure why you would do this, but if you take more than the recommended dose by sprinkling them or food or any other way, then you must immediatly go to hospital. There has been no recorded deaths by an overdose of Strattera although you may experience sleepyness, agitation, hyperactivity, abnormal behavior, and gastrointestinal symptoms.

NO

We have been giving our son strattera for a year sprinkled on food.

Answer 3

Yes it can be. In fact the higher dosage capsules work out much cheaper. So you can buy 10 tabs of say 60 mg. and convert them to 30 doses of 20 mg. You can mix contents of each 60 mg capsule in a glass of juice and then drink one third of the juice after stirring well to get 20 mg. thrice. I don't know about sprinkling on food. May not be very tasty. rgds Devdes