{"id":7701,"date":"2022-06-08T09:09:17","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T09:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booksofall.com\/es\/?post_type=product&p=7701"},"modified":"2022-06-10T07:54:35","modified_gmt":"2022-06-10T07:54:35","slug":"3d-printing-could-give-you-a-better-pill-to-swallow","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.booksofall.com\/es\/3d-printing-could-give-you-a-better-pill-to-swallow\/","title":{"rendered":"3D printing could give you a better pill to swallow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meet the scientists using 3D printers to deliver safer, more effective tablets for children.<\/h4>\n
\n

In March 2017, 13-year-old Joseph was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis. He has been undergoing treatment at Alder Hey Children\u2019s Hospital in Liverpool ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was really, really poorly,\u201d Joseph\u2019s mother, Helen, tells me. \u201cHe needed the steroids \u2013 there was no getting around that \u2013 but one of the side-effects of long-term steroid use is that your body can stop producing its own cortisol.\u201d In effect, his adrenal glands went to sleep.<\/p>\n

To replace the lost cortisol, a hormone involved in metabolism and the immune system, Joseph also started taking hydrocortisone tablets in January 2018, and he\u2019ll keep taking them until his adrenal glands start producing cortisol again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Hydrocortisone, however, is one of many medicines that cause problems for children. In the UK, it is available as 10 mg or 20 mg tablets, and adults generally take two or three whole 10 mg tablets a day. Guidance in the patient information leaflet states that children should take \u201c0.4 to 0.8 mg a day, for every kilogram of your child\u2019s weight in two or three separate doses\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is left to parents, therefore, to hack each 10 mg tablet into pieces a few millimetres in size. Joseph takes half a tablet in the morning, another half at midday and a quarter tablet at teatime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fine about taking the tablets,\u201d says Joseph, now 15. \u201cBut it\u2019s annoying having to cut them up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an absolute pain at teatime,\u201d adds Helen, \u201cbecause they\u2019re not really designed to be broken. They did give us a little cutter, but you really can\u2019t easily cut it into the quarters and they tend to crumble. It\u2019s not an accurate dose.\u201d<\/p>\n

This can be a serious problem, explains Matthew Peak, Director of Research at Alder Hey: \u201cIf they\u2019re getting an underdose because the quarter that they\u2019ve chopped has got half of what you expect in it, then they start to fall asleep at school in the afternoons. It really affects you.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr you might oxidise it. In breaking up the tablet, you would be doing untoward things to the active drugs. There\u2019s all kinds of problems that can arise.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few years ago, Peak began to wonder whether it would be possible to offer children and young people like Joseph bespoke tablets \u2013 sized to suit them and containing the exact dosage they require. He now believes it is possible, and that the answer could lie in 3D printing.<\/p>\n

Reference:<\/h4>\n