what do I do??

I'm already 3 hours late at taking my medication tonight and I just realised I was given the wrong tablets!!! Epilim instead of Epilim Chrono (controlled released) - do I take them anyway?

Advice please!!!

Can you call the pharmacy ?

I rang NHS-Direct (UK health care line) and they said they'll ring me back within an hour...

I have taken lithium carbonate when I ran out of lithmax xr before, I didn't like doing it tho. I wondered if it mattered too.

You didn't like doing it because it wasn't what you were supposed to be taking or did it have a bad effect on you?
NHS still hasn't rang me back If I skip a dose I know it will mess me up for a few days (if not entire week) and the more I wait the more messed up tomorrow becomes!
I'm so stupid, leaving it to the last minute.

They are the same drug, however with the controlled release some docs have you take the full dose at one time (say at bedtime), but if it is not controlled release then the dose must be spaced out to keep the blood levels up throughout the day. So, how do you take it normally? full dose all at once or not? Also, how many milligrams per day total?

because wasn't sure if it would mess my lithium levels up. I think its a good question to ask before just taking it.

I know what each one is, I even read exactly the composition of each! It didn't help much.
I take the controlled released one, 500mg at night.
Now I have 500mg of the other one in front of me.

Still try to get confirmation from NHS-Direct, however if you can not...Then split Epilim 500mg tablet in half and take one half tonight and one 12 hours later. That is evenly dispersing med throughout the night/day- 250mg tonight and 250 mg in the morning.

Forgot to mention....side effects will hit you harder and faster. One of the benefits of controlled release is that side effects are minimized.

'You can take one tonight and get the right prescription tomorrow.'

To my health then! *gulps down the tablet...*

Thank you for the advice, dij I think I'll risk the side effects, they'll make tomorrow bad but in the long run it's best to have that sodium thing in my system without a miss...

You should have only taken 1/2 of the pill tonight... regular vs. extended release is very different.

You may feel like you were hit by a mac truck when you wake up if you took the whole pill.....

You're not allowed to break them...Or so it says on the leaflet that comes in the box. If I've managed to pull through an accidental overdose on Seroquel (my dose X3!) I think I will be ok. But you are right...
Now (4 hrs later) I am wide awake (what happened when I first started epilim!) and waiting for the crash, haha.
And my stomach isn't happy...
oh well..! And the day begins.

I'm glad you found the info about not breaking them, SunReach. Some of them are like that (I used to be on one that was that way). Med mixups can be so frustrating and a bit scary. Hope it goes well for you, and please let us know, ok?

Thank you Innerzone

I did crash but surprisingly I woke up ok Still feel a bit sick and more groggy than usual but at the same time I hadn't had such a deep sleep in absolutely ages. That makes me think maybe there is a different way of taking this med to improve my sleep. Or maybe add another 50mg or something of the 'just epilim' one? I have also put on almost a stone since I started it on the 500mg dose and I'm starting to think maybe I need a slightly higher dose to cover for the extra weight?! Maybe I'm not making much sense...Anyway, let's see how this day at uni goes and hopefully I can also see a doctor today (I can't make it to the drop-in on time )

It must be a enteric-coated tablet...

I'm sorry for giving you wrong advice. That is the danger of giving advice of this nature. So lets say in theory it would have been more appropriate to split the pill, however you did not say the pill could not be split.

Oh well hope you feel ok today.

Don't worry dij! I never take advice blindly even though what you said was making sense