The Curse of the Ghost Tablet

Technology is great…. until it has you looking at something curious in your poo. Believe it or not, there are several medications that mimic the corn phenomena – they come out of the body looking the same as they went in. The ghost tablet. Many of the new formulations of controlled-release tablets will pass through the body and land as an empty intact shell in the feces.

This doesn’t mean that the medication didn’t work. In fact, what happens after we ingest drugs like this is that the tablet matrix does not dissolve but the drug within it is released into the body during transit. When a patient sees the left-over tablet, it can cause anxiety and concern if they aren’t aware of the mechanism in which the drug is released.

I like to use the metaphor of “teabag technology” when I’m counseling a patient on how the medication releases. The tea is extracted from the tea leaves in the bag when it’s placed in water.

Here are a few examples of drugs that have this type of release mechanism:

• Allegra D

• Procardia XL

• Cardura XL

• Ditropan XL

• Exalgo

• Fortamet

• Glucophage XR

• Invega

• Lialda

• OxyContin

• Pristiq

• Rayos

• Tegretol XR

• Urocit – K

• Viramune XR

• Wellbutrin X1

- PDC Clinical Team