Pill Coming Out Same As It Went In!

I quit taking time released or coated medications. They switched my time released antidepressant bupropion, generic for wellbrution, to 3 times a day. I take another one that is just once a day but isn't coated and doesn't look time released either. I see why you are concerned. Do you think the medication is working? If not then it doesn't make any difference trying to convince your doctor and the pharmacist anyway right? Maybe you need to tell your doctor it isn't working so s/he will change to a different prescription. Things get more complicated than they need to be

Hard for me to tell if the medication is working. I've been so busy lately I don't have time to get depressed. I find myself getting more irritable than usual! I'm on bupropion....that is the pill coming out whole. Glad it's generic (cheap). I'd be furious if it were a brand name and just "passed through"......kah-ching!

Timed released are dangerous for some of us. Personally I have had some very bad experiences with pills going in and coming out intact...or worse, not coming out at all. They accumulated at the bottom of my pouch and for some reason they all decided to 'release' at around the same moment ( could be something that I ate that helped to degrade them) and I ended up 'overdosing' and sleeping for 5 days.
Since then my meds are non-time released, liquid, gel, powder, or chewable.
I don't take the risk.
Same with anti-biotics. They had no effect on me (kept running through and was told that I couldn't smash them) so they put me on I.V. and that worked wonders.
Beware...not all doctors really understand the mechanics of our pouches...sometimes we are the best advocates for ourselves...speak up, nag or insist...you know better.
Sharon

For a while I was noticing a white capsule-shaped pill that was intact in the pouch (gloved-hand excursion while self-dilating.) This started occurring more frequently and began to cause irritation. At first I thought it was a hard-coated pill I had been taking, but one day I decided to get all scientific and examine it against everything else I was taking. I finally determined it was in fact a capsule form of magnesium supplement, and while the capsule had dissolved, the contents remained in the shape of the capsule even after entering the pouch. I simply stopped taking it because it was so irritating to the pouch. I also began to split any pills with a hard coating, whenever possible, to encourage them to absorb moisture and dissolve before they hit the pouch.

An aside: I found the use of Asacol when I had a very inflamed, angry, red and bleeding colon before my surgery to be the height of cruelty. The shells of those capsules were sharp and super-painful . . . and yes, they would stack up in the rectum and pass 10-12 at a time in a most excruciating event each time. A very cruel trick indeed.

CeeeeCeeee that is the very pill that I went off of capsule form onto pill form. Bupropion! I take 3 100MG pills a day vs 1 time released capsule a day. They may say it is not time released but in our case whatever it is it does not work right in our systems. My Internist switched me long before I even had my j-pouch. I thought it was because it was time released. She said Not to cut the pills I had.

Plus of the 3 I take per day I am not to take the third before I go to bed as it might keep me awake. It is the generic of Wellbrutin and considered a good one. It is not a SSRI, higher grade of antidepressant.

Debra, I use to take up to 12 Asacol a day but hardly ever passed the coating. I can see now how they could have been part of the alien beast inside attempting to claw his way out of my abdomen. I still feel him clawing with my j-pouch at times and it brings it all back. It goes away much sooner and doesn't hurt as bad because I have pain pills now. I don't know why I didn't insist or why they didn't give them to me then. The flipping years of suffering. Before my last colonoscopy I called my GI's office on a Friday and said what was I supposed to do if I couldn't stand the pain over the weekend, all he would prescribe was dicyclomine, and she said to go the ER. I was at my Internist's office a few days later and she said "do you need pain pills, I'll give you pain pills", and she wrote me a prescription for tramadol. It was a God send. The first time in 14 years anyone gave me a real pain pill. My GI was shocked when he saw my colon during my colonoscopy, which my Internist made me get as I wasn't due to have one yet. Hello doc, UC patient in excruciating pain asking for colonoscopy = problem! Sorry this should be in rants.

Sorry for the pain you suffered Debra.

I used to take Effexor and every month without fail, the doc writes the script for the extend release. I always have to have her change it to the immediate release tablet. I also saw capsules whole in the toilet and was not receiving the benefits of the medication. I now refuse to take anything that is ER, it drives my various docs crazy but I am a stickler. My doc had original wrote me for Cymbalta which only comes ER and had to change me to Effexor which is the most similar drug in order to get the immediate release

Thank you all for your replies! Now I know I'm not nutso! And, yes, Asacol went right through me and I kept getting the same story....I'm getting the meds! Yes, sure! That was surely a flushing $$$$$$ down the toilet experience.

I'm going to have a serious talk with the doctor who is prescribing the timed release anti-depressant.

Thanks again!

My GI doctor said NO MORE Extended Release pills for the rest of my life. Ever. He said they never work anymore.

I was on Effexor XR and had to switch to the regular Effexor and I also take Pamelor at night for my migraines. Seems to be working great so far.

I would stay away from XR. Just my thoughts.

I take Celexa 40mg daily and so far have had no problems. I think it is dissolving just fine.

When I took celexa it was a regular pill and it dissolved great to, it is an SSRI which is a totally different kind of antidepressant than what Ceeee Ceeee is taking as is some of the other's mentioned above. She can get what she's on in pill form as I have it in pill form. I also take viibryd in pill form once a day and it dissolves fine but isn't coated ER or in capsule form, it's a different kind of antidepressant than what Ceeee Ceeee is on as well.

Is extended release different than enteric coated? Do J pouchers do OK with enteric coated? Thank you.

No

There are many different methods used to delay pills from starting to dissolve (in the stomach) as soon as we swallow them. In addition, we each have very different transit times. The trouble is that neither your doctor nor your pharmacist will know for sure which of these formulations might work reliably for you. My answer is a bit more ambiguous than TE Marie's (I'd say "sometimes"), but it ends up at the same place. I don't take delayed release or coated pills, because they may not be reliable for me.