Abstract
Food thickeners are widely used to aid the oral administration of medications to patients with dysphagia. Powder-type food thickeners are used to modulate the viscosity of therapeutic solutions depending on the swallowing capacity of patients. Food thickeners inhibit or delay the disintegration of some medications, resulting in reduced pharmaceutical effects of the medications and/or their excretion in the stool. A short immersion time (within 1 min) is important to overcome these problems. Although thickened drinks are commercially available, their use as vehicles for medications is not well understood. In this study, we evaluated the effects of thickened drinks on the disintegration time of therapeutic tablets. Furthermore, we compared the thickened drinks with powder-type xanthan gum-based food thickeners. Forty tablets were used, including naked tablets, film-coated tablets, orally disintegrating tablets, enteric-coated tablets, and sugar-coated tablets. For the disintegration test, the tablets were immersed in thickened drinks or food thickeners for 1 min. The changes in the disintegration time of the 40 tablets immersed in the thickened drinks were comparable with those in food thickeners. The disintegration time of several tablets was shorter or unchanged after immersion in the thickened drinks. The disintegration time of rapidly disintegrating tablets tended to increase when immersed in thickened drinks, but it was less than 2 min for the majority of the tablets. These results demonstrate that thickened drinks, similar to food thickeners, could help administer medications to patients. Overall, our study provides valuable information for pharmacists and clinicians to decide the most suitable way to deliver medications to patients with dysphagia.
Highlights
Patients with dysphagia may experience problems in eating and drinking normally; watery and low viscosity foods and drinks such as water, tea, and miso soup pose a potential risk of aspiration
First fluid was used as the test fluid for all tablets, and all disintegration times are shown in seconds
The Line spread test (LST) values of the thickened drinks were in the range of 45.1–45.9 mm; the pH of the thickened roasted green tea, green tea, and black coffee drinks was 6.5, 6.6, and 5.9, respectively, immediately after opening the bottles
Summary
Patients with dysphagia may experience problems in eating and drinking normally; watery and low viscosity foods and drinks such as water, tea, and miso soup pose a potential risk of aspiration. Food thickeners prevent accidental aspiration by reducing swallowing speed [1]. Food thickeners are classified as mildly, moderately, and extremely thick [2], and individuals with dysphagia can prepare thickened drinks of appropriate concentrations based on their needs. Food thickeners can be classified as starch-type, guar gum-type, and xanthan gum-type, depending on their formulation [3]. Xanthan-gum-based thickeners are frequently used for patients with dysphagia in nursing facilities, owing to their rapid thickening ability, stability, and tolerable taste and smell [1, 3]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call