FORMULATION, EVALUATION AND RADIOGRAPHIC STUDY OF STOMACH SPECIFIC FLOATING TABLETS CONTAINING VENLAFAXINE HYDROCHLORIDE FOR TREATMENT OF DEPRESSION

Depression is a chronic, recurring, and potentially life-threatening illness. The present work is to formulate floating tablets of Venlafaxine hydrochloride as this drug is used to treat depression. GIT absorption of Venlafaxine hydrochloride is poor due to low aqueous solubility. Thus, an attempt was made to enhance it gastric residence time that will improve its dissolution profile. The floating tablets were prepared by direct compression method. The Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy revealed absence of any drug – polymer interactions. The floating tablets were evaluated for hardness, thickness, friability and drug content. The drug content of tablets was in range of 97.43 ± 1.56 to 98.71 ± 2.87%. The floating lag times of tablets for all batches were found in the range of 36.0 ± 1.1 to 68.0 ± 2.9 sec. The radiographic study of tablets containing barium meal showed that floating tablets remained buoyant for more than 12 h. The drug release from floating tablets followed Korysmer Pappas model. The results suggested that prepared floating tablets containing Venlafaxine hydrochloride could enhance gastric residence time as remain buyout for long time and modulate the drug release.