I believe you misunderstood. What you say would only be true if you just
take 1/2 of the tablet. You will have a slightly faster acting response
by breaking the tablet and ingesting both halves. But that would negate
having a CR (Controlled Release) tablet in the first place. A person
might as well take just a plain Sinemet with some slightly different
makeup.

J. Darwin Hawkins, Test Engineering
Phone: (316) 523-2804 (W), (316) 788-2322 (H)
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> ----------
> From:         KF Etzold[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent:         Thursday, July 23, 1998 1:02 PM
> To:   Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN
> Subject:      Braking a Sinemet CR
>
> I want to add to the discussion of the effects of breaking  a CR in
> half. It
> seems to me that the conclusions are opposite to what
> has been described before. Assume that the rate of dissolution of the
> pill is
> proportional to the area. The we need to compare the area befrore and
> after
> breaking the pill. Consider a half section: the area before consists
> of the top
> and bottom surfaces  and the edge strip. However, the end is not
> exposed
> because the pill is not broken yet. Now consider after: the area which
> used to
> consist of the top,
> bottom and edge strip is now reduced to the oval area where the break
> is. I
> would argue therefor that the new area is signifantly smaller than
> before,
> almost by a factor of two.
> Therefore the dosage would be *reduced* by the same factor.
> K-F
>