From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Drug for Hair Loss
Date: 22 Jul 1998 05:26:40 GMT

In <6p2g2q$kr1$1@ligarius.ultra.net> wright@nospam.clam (David Wright)
writes:

>In article <6p1umr$o73$1@pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk>,
>D.M. Garner <dmg@eng.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>>I believe that there is a drug available in the US which acts on
>>DHT, thereby preventing hairloss.
>>
>>Can someone please tell me something about this, and whether it is
>>ever likely to be available in Britain?
>
>Sounds like you're talking about Merck's Propecia (finasteride).  In
>higher doses, it's used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia, under
>the name Proscar.  I don't know about its status in the UK, but I know
>of no reason why it couldn't be made available there.



    And I know of no reason why anybody on "Propecia" isn't buying
Proscar, cutting each 5 mg pill into approximate quarters, and taking
one quarter each day, with a one day break after each full tablet (one
tab every 5 days).  Geez you can keep the quarters in a separate little
bottle, if you like.  They don't have to be perfect, as this is a long
half-life drug  It's not THAT hard, and you can buy pill cutters at
most pharmacies.

   You can also save big time cutting up your Raloxifen, Aricept and
Viagra tabs.  Watch those pill prices like a hawk-- the drug companies
will overcharge you wherever they can.

                                    Steve Harris, M.D.

From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Drug for Hair Loss
Date: 23 Jul 1998 05:26:00 GMT

In <briangEwItLL.Jxp@netcom.com> briang@netcom.com (Brian Gordon)
writes:

>Sounds reasonable to me, but ... I have heard that some drug makers
>warn against that unless the pills/capsules/etc. are scored for it.


Of course they are going to warn about it.  What do you THINK they're
going to say?

But the only legitimate reason not to cut a tablet is for some tabs
that are slow release (Glucotrol XL, for example).  But you have to ask
the doc and the pharmacist.  For example, I know of one slow release
which is scored, and can be cut or broken in two, but not further
(Sinemet CR).  The fact that a tablet is not scored, however, means
nothing at all as to whether or not it will cause medical problems to
cut it.


>other pills are not guaranteed to be homogenious, so you could have
>widely varying doses in the two well-cut halves :-(


    Considering the way tablets are made, that's impossible.  There is
simply no commercial way to make tablets which have good dose control
for the whole tab, but widely varying amounts in the tablet halves.
What, do you think they stick tablets together on the score line?
Except for Sinemet CR (already mentioned), I can assure you they don't.
And even if they did, there's still would be no way of making sure you
got halves with less to marry up with other halves that had just enough
to make up.  Nope, if you can get it cut reasonably in two, you're
going to get reasonably close to half the dose.  And that's good enough
for just about everything.


                                     Steve Harris, M.D.