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Oral medication vs. Injections

Oral medication vs. Injections

The common belief by many people is that injections are more effective in treatment than oral medicine. Some patients, in fact, claim that they have not got a proper treatment if the doctor does not give an injection. Most of these patients probably assume that the pain by the needles is equal to more success in fast treatment. However, it is not an indicator of effectiveness. The pain caused by injections of quinine is a because of the high alkalinity or acidity but not due to the effectiveness.

Injections might to some extent be effective than tablets, but you can only understand why by knowing the reasons why some medication are in injections form and others are in capsule or tablets.

Reasons for Packing Some Drugs in Injection Form

Protection from neutralization by stomach enzymes

Certain drugs would be almost useless if you administer orally since the enzymes in the stomach that help in digesting food would destroy them. Insulin injection for treatment of diabetes is one of the good examples.

Insulin is a protein and prescribing it in the form of a tablet mean that the same enzymes that digest proteins such as meat in the stomach will break it down. They will be like food thus will not heal, and it is the reason that pharmaceutical companies will not make insulin tablets.

Patient convenience

It is impossible for some patients to take medicine in tablet and an injection becomes a more convenient option to take their medications. The hindrances to taking drugs orally include patients who are vomiting, unconscious or have other reasons that prevent taking anything by mouth. A cancer lining on the upper part of alimentary canal prevents swallowing. It is the reason why you will find an injection alternative for almost all medication prescriptions available in tablets but not for strength purposes.


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Quick absorption

In some instances such as emergencies, a doctor or caregiver might want to achieve an almost immediate effect. For example, when attending to bleeding patients, the most important thing at that moment is to stop more blood from spilling out. An injection serves the purpose better since the blood absorbs it directly unlike a tablet or suspension medicine which first dissolves in the stomach before getting into the bloodstream for absorption.

Injection allows administering more medicine

Injections allow a medical practitioner to give a more substantial amount of drug in an intravenous injection with the help of a pint. It is better than a tablet because it will require administering of more than one tablet to achieve the same result. Giving medicine through injection allows continuous administering of medicine by using intravenous injection. The constant infusion of drug helps to maintain plasma –drug concentration in a better way than by an oral tablet.

Subdermal, intradermal and intramuscular injection allows the prolonged effect of medicine than what a tablet can achieve.

Are Oral Medications Inferior?

Although injections react fast because of direct absorption through the bloodstream, some of the drugs in this form will not affect unless a patient takes them orally. The reason is that some drugs only have a healing effect in the solid state. Formulating them into an injectable liquid quickly breaks them down, and they lose their medicinal property.

An excellent way to illustrate this state is by comparing liquid and powder milk. Liquid milk is perishable and can only maintain its properties as well as strength for a day or two utmost when you leave it in the open. Powdered milk will go even without refrigeration last for many years. The same thing applies for some drugs cannot retain their properties for a long time in injection form unlike tablets which expire after many years.

Pharmacists solve the instability by making some injections as powders that need mixing with a certain amount of water before administering. It requires drugs to dissolve in water thus leaving out insoluble drugs. Many painkillers and ARVs such as aspirin are available in tablet forms, but only a few are an injectable option.

There is no justification that injections work better than tablets. It may only have time advantage but not more efficient. The effect of any drug will depend on the part of the body requiring treatment. Pills are safer because they don to cause a risk of paralysis that comes with some injection drugs. The decision to use an injection or oral medicines for treatment depends on the situation or disease at hand. Do not think that the treatment is inferior if a doctor does not administer a drug through a syringe.


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