Tablets are solid preparations made by mixing and compressing drugs and excipients. They can be divided into the following main types according to their use, release characteristics and route of administration:
I. Classification by route of administration
Oral tablets
Ordinary tablets: The most common tablets, swallowed directly with water (such as ordinary aspirin tablets).
Coated tablets: Including sugar-coated tablets (to mask the bitter taste), film-coated tablets (moisture-proof protection) and enteric-coated tablets (such as omeprazole enteric-coated tablets to avoid gastric irritation).
Sustained-release tablets/controlled-release tablets: The former are not released at a constant rate (such as ibuprofen sustained-release tablets), and the latter are released at a constant rate (such as nifedipine controlled-release tablets). Most of them need to be swallowed whole.
Effervescent tablets: Dissolves when in contact with water to produce bubbles (such as vitamin C effervescent tablets), and need to be completely dissolved before taking.
Dispersible tablets: Disintegrate quickly in water (such as amoxicillin dispersible tablets), suitable for people with dysphagia.
Multilayer tablets: Layered design to avoid drug interactions or adjust release time.
Oral tablets
Sublingual tablets: quickly absorbed (such as nitroglycerin sublingual tablets), used for emergency treatment.
Lozenges: slowly dissolved (such as coral lozenges), used for local treatment of the throat.
Oral patches: adhered to the oral mucosa for sustained release of drugs.
Topical tablets
Vaginal tablets: used for local treatment (such as antibacterial vaginal tablets).
Topical solution tablets: dissolved before use (such as potassium permanganate tablets), used for disinfection or gargling.
2. Classification by raw material characteristics (related to traditional Chinese medicine)
Full extract tablets: made from all medicinal materials.
Semi-extract tablets: fine powder of some medicinal materials mixed with extracts.
Full powder tablets: the medicinal materials are directly crushed and pressed.
