Why some of the drugs are available in the form of capsules?

 

From the early childhood (and till now) I have always faced problems in swallowing encapsulated drugs. I have always avoided these kinda capsulated pills and always had the doctor to refer me tablets or liquid alternatives instead.

I got to know that this kind of difficulty in swallowing is called dysphagia. Though it is medically not recommended to cut open or chew a capsule pill, but not gonna lie I have done this few times myself.

Here’s a link that shares tips to swallow a pill which may be helpful to those who are facing a similar problem like me: https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-swallow-a-pill#help-a-child

So stemming from my inability to ingest big pills and capsules I wondered why some of these drugs had to be necessarily inside this hard-to-swallow-capsule?

Well some of the drugs had necessarily to be in liquid form trapped inside the solid capsule (often made up of gelatin ; which is inert and easily degraded in the body without any toxic side effects). Liquid formulations often have solubility issues (relatively insoluble in aqueous media) , therefore there is incomplete dissolution of the drug in the intestinal milieu.

Sometimes encapsulation is done to protect the active drug from adverse changes over time and/or transportation as in Vitamins such as Vit E capsules easily available in the market, encapsulation of the vitamin protects it from oxidation.

At other instances, encapsulation is also done for controlled release of the drug so the drug is released into the body only when the capsule is degraded by the stomach acid or intestinal enzymes. Microencapsulation is often done for sustained or prolonged release of drug in the body.

Some drugs are also packaged into capsules to mask their obnoxious taste or unpleasant odor; but all these don’t mask the fear of getting the pill struck in the throat for me😖.

But that’s something that I gotta help my own self with , cause that little buddy ain’t gonna get in there by itself (but wish it could though).

I hope this read may help to feed the curiosity for some! 

-Samprikta Kundu