How Adults Can Swallow Drug Pills If They Are Scared

There are different dosage form available for adult. The most common one is drug pills. It is cheap to produce, easy to self administer, with many other benefits. This cannot be said of the other dosage forms like injection. Unfortunately, there is a small percentage of adults that find it difficult to swallow pills. According to one statistics, about 40 % of adults cannot swallow drug pills. This is pushing them to opt-in for the more painful injection.
Injection is never better than drug pills. There are so many disadvantages of injection over pills. Injection is only used in unconscious patient or when swallowing pills is difficult such as during emesis. Choosing injection because one cannot swallow drug pills should not be encouraged.
Read Also: Effect Of Swallowing Drug Pills With Eba Or Fufu

Why some Adults Are Scared Of Drug Pill

1. Dosage form: drug pills come in various dosage form. Some people are more comfortable with some dosage form than others. Capsule is easy to some but others may prefer tablet. Unfortunately, not all drugs exist in all the possible dosage form.
2. Size: the size of the dosage form plays a key role. Large size is difficult to swallow than small size.
3. Narrow Oesophagus: some few individuals have a medical condition known as narrow Oesophagus that makes it hard to swallow large pills including food.
4. Experience: people with previous bad experience with drug pills may find it hard to swallow them. A childhood experience from taking a pill that led to choking can have a long-lasting effect that makes it hard to swallow drug pills. This is called mental block.
Read Also: Disadvantage Of Injection Over Drug Pill
5. Gag reflex: when something large gets to the throat, it causes choking. This choking activates the gag reflex. Some people experience hyperactive gag reflex that is triggered all the time. This is common with people who gag when brushing their tongue.

Drug pill

Tips

1. Practice how to take drug pills. There are different method that work for different person. Learn it and stick with it.
2. Take a drug pill one at a time instead of swallowing more than one. If the one is still difficult, break it into bits (ask your pharmacist if it is good).
3. If it is also permitted by your pharmacist, you can add them to food like eba, fufu, and others. This is because many persons can swallow large chunk of food without stress but can't with drug pills.
4. Numb the tongue because that is the main thing that triggers that gag reflex. Drink something cold or sweet.
5. Some people encourage the drug to be placed at the back of the tongue. This is to bypass the taste buds at the froformd center of the tongue. This is counterproductive. It may not yield the needed result.
6. For this who gag alot, it is advisable they brush their tongue more so that their body get use to the choking feeling.

Two Methods To Help Swallow Drug Pills Easily

There are two methods of swallowing drug pill that makes it easy. Both showed an increase ease of swallowing medication. However, it works for many does not mean it will work for all. This is because this was a study done on few individuals. Both methods requires an upright sitting position.
The first is the lean forward method. The first thing to do is to take a sip of water. This help to moisture the mouth and esophagus to prevent drug pills from getting stick to the alimentary canal. Place the drug pill at the front of the mouth or tongue. close your mouth around the glass of water to avoid air entering the mouth. Take a sip as much as will allow a once gulp. Take the mouth from the glass of water. Lean the head forward towards the chest. Swallow the water containing the drug. Easy right?
Read Also: Drug Pills That Can Be Divided
Alternatively, after sipping water to moisture the mouth and oesophagus, place the drug pill in the front of the mouth or tongue. Using bottle water, place your mouth around the mouth of the bottle water. Keep the mouth closed to prevent air from entering the mouth. Sip in water while swallowing it with the drug.
If all above methods fails, you can go for liquid dosage form if available for the drug. However, this is more expensive but better than injection.
Here is a video tutorial on how to take drugs