Drug Expiration Dates — Do They Mean Anything?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The big question is, do pills expire? With a splitting headache, you reach into your medicine cabinet for some aspirin only to find the stamped expiration date on the medicine bottle is more than a year out of date. So, does medicine expire? Do you take it or don't you? If you decide to take the aspirin, will it be a fatal mistake or will you simply continue to suffer from the headache?
The big question is, do pills expire? With a splitting headache, you reach into your medicine cabinet for some aspirin only to find the stamped expiration date on the medicine bottle is more than a year out of date. So, does medicine expire? Do you take it or don't you? If you decide to take the aspirin, will it be a fatal mistake or will you simply continue to suffer from the headache ?
This is a dilemma many people face in some way or another. A column published in Psychopharmacology Today offers some advice.
It turns out that the expiration date on a drug does stand for something, but probably not what you think it does. Since a law was passed in 1979, drug manufacturers are required to stamp an expiration date on their products. This is the date at which the manufacturer can still guarantee the full potency and safety of the drug.
Most of what is known about drug expiration dates comes from a study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. With a large and expensive stockpile of drugs, the military faced tossing out and replacing its drugs every few years. What they found from the study is 90% of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date.
So, the expiration date doesn't really indicate a point at which the medication is no longer effective or has become unsafe to use. Medical authorities state if expired medicine is safe to take, even those that expired years ago. A rare exception to this may be tetracycline, but the report on this is controversial among researchers. It's true the effectiveness of a drug may decrease over time, but much of the original potency still remains even a decade after the expiration date. Excluding nitroglycerin, insulin, and liquid antibiotics, most medications are as long-lasting as the ones tested by the military. Placing a medication in a cool place, such as a refrigerator, will help a drug remain potent for many years.
Is the expiration date a marketing ploy by drug manufacturers, to keep you restocking your medicine cabinet and their pockets regularly? You can look at it that way. Or you can also look at it this way: The expiration dates are very conservative to ensure you get everything you paid for. And, really, if a drug manufacturer had to do expiration-date testing for longer periods it would slow their ability to bring you new and improved formulations.
The next time you face the drug expiration date dilemma , consider what you've learned here. If the expiration date passed a few years ago and it's important that your drug is absolutely 100% effective, you might want to consider buying a new bottle. And if you have any questions about the safety or effectiveness of any drug, ask your pharmacist. He or she is a great resource when it comes to getting more information about your medications.
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Medications can start to lose their efficacy after the expiration date. That doesn't mean they are completely ineffective or quickly "spoil" like milk can after their expiration date. As for the safety of a medication after expiration, that would largely depend on the medication and its storage conditions. Certain medications need to be temperature regulated or kept in a dark place as light can affect them. Moisture or air exposure over time can also cause meds to degrade and potentially become unsafe for use. But chances are, expired medications will not hurt you. They may not help you as well as they should. But they probably won't hurt.
Does being "unsafe for use" past an expiration date mean they can become dangerous, such as poisonous, or simply become too ineffective to do what they are intended to do?
Buzz,
I have been trying to find it, but Cornell Veterinary School did a whole thing about the effectiveness of drugs past due, and they found that almost all pill drugs with the exception of the tetracycline group, are very effective even when they are 10 years old.
Possibly both. But again, it can vary depending on the med, its handling and storage.
I still have Tylenol and Tylenol 3 (codeine) that I brought with me more than 13 years ago. I used it so rarely because I have a high tolerance for pain, so I'm glad it could still be somewhat effective if I need it. I can't remember the last time I used them.
And here I have been trying to use them up as fast as I can before the expiration date.
See, now you don't have to rush
Nonsense for every dry thing stored in its original containers. They will last for decades.
Liquids in an opened container will degrade. Quicker if exposed to sunlight.
Anything left out on the bathroom or kitchen counter in a tray, exposed to the sun and varying levels of humidity will suffer from
the same decay that eventually makes your sofa cushions fail.
Well said SP!
The only thing I take with regularity is insulin. After 28 days, I am supposed to pitch it and start a new vial. I get it through the VA so it's not a big deal, 29 bucks for 3 months. I usually use a vial for ~2 months, (I don't require a lot of insulin). Kit Kat, (my cat), is diabetic as well, (yea, it's a thing, I had no idea). So the vet tells me that he needs insulin, 1 unit, twice a day. One unit is almost literally a drop. She also tells me that he needs feline insulin. So, I load him into the Jeep and head for the pharmacy. She phoned it in so it would be ready when I get there. His insulin was $300.00 a vial, (that's supposed to be pitched after 28 days), because Kit Kat doesn't get insurance through his job. So I bought supplies for him, needles, sharps container, blood glucose monitor, etc.. I get home and I pull out his insulin to put it in the fridge and I noticed something.. It looked familiar. I grabbed a vial of my insulin and compared the two. Identical. No difference at all.
If I followed the guidelines and threw it out after 28 days, for my insulin and Kit Kat's, $7,776.00 a year. Kit Kat now gets my insulin, since I never come close to running out.