Crushing pills to make them easier to swallow may cause serious side-effects that can sometimes be fatal, warn experts.
A group of experts, including pharmacists and lawyers, said that pills are often coated with a special material that governs their release into the body, but crushing them disturbs this system.
David Wright, who led the group, said that rather than crushing pills, people should take them in patches, liquids or inhalers.
He said that an estimated 60 percent of older people have trouble swallowing medication, adding that 75 million prescriptions are associated with adverse drug reactions annually.
He also said that drugs like tamoxifen and morphine, which are used in the treatment of breast cancer, should never be crushed, as it could trigger a fatally fast release of the drug inside the body.
David said that Nifedipine, the angina and blood pressure drug, can cause dizziness, headaches and an increased risk of stroke or heart attack when consumed in crushed form.
The experts also said that medical practitioners and nurses could be legally liable and charged with negligence if they advise a patient to crush up a pill or open a capsule.
"Crushing pills increases the risk of side-effects, of the patient getting a large dose of a drug, which should be released slowly, or a drug being cleared from the body too early before it can do anything. Fatalities can happen, although they are not that common," the BBC quoted David as saying.
He said doctors needed to check if patients were happy to swallow pills when they first issued prescriptions, and at follow-up appointments.
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