sublingual meds.

[paisa]

Hi everyone, this is my first post, so please bare with me.I have this question: You gave your patient ativan via sublingual. What will you tell the patient to do after giving the drug?

a)wait a couple of minutes before drinking or eating

b)take the drug with food

c)wash your mouth after the pill dissolves in the mouth

d)swallow the drug

Some friends say the answer is c and others says is a.

Any ideas what it is???

Thanks

[onyx77]

I would think the answer is 'a'. There maybe some residual medication left in the mouth and you want to make sure that the pt gets all of it.

Infact, I think this is one of the meds that dentists use for conscious sedation, and they don't have the pts rinse out their mouths once it dissolves. Then again, maybe they do! :uhoh21:I had conscious sedation done when I had my root canal done a couple months ago... and it works VERY well! So, it could be that he had me rinse my mouth, but I do remember most of the stuff that happened the first 5-10 minutes after he gave me the med, and I don't remember rinsing my mouth.

I still would go with answer 'a'.

[EricJRN, MSN, RN]

I agree with A. You wouldn't want the pt to swallow for a couple of minutes, as it would alter the absorption, so that knocks out b,c, and d.

http://home.intekom.com/pharm/akromed/ativansl.html

[txspadequeenRN, BSN, RN]

i can tell you right now it's not c ,cause ativan comes either in a small pill that you crush and mix with a small amount of water to give sl or in a intensol form for sl admin. i deal with massive amounts of ativan (i've done lots of hospice and geri psych) and have never run into a ativan that was made to dissolve immediately

i think the answer is a cause with any sl drug you are to wait a few minutes for the medication to absorb.

a) correct

b) you dont have to take ativan with food

c) why would you rinse you mouth out..you could rinse some of the med out as well .. now swish and swallow that would be ok

d) even though you are expected to give the medication in the sl form for faster absorption , if the patient swallows the drug it will be ok ....it will just take longer to take effect.