Should You Take An Out-of-date Medicine?

Wednesday, 19 June 2024, 5:46 pm
Article: RNZ

Most of us will have a drawer or cabinet full of old or expired medicines, but should we take them? The answer, pharmacist Gemma Perry says, is mixed.

She joined Emile Donovan on Nights to dispense the information.

Most medicines will have an expiry of between one and five years, she said.

"But then there's a few drugs that are a little bit more unstable, and they will have shorter expiry dates.

"Some children's antibiotics, when we make them up, they've got a seven-day expiry date. And then there's other things that might have a five-year expiry date."

Some studies have shown that even after 80 years, medicines remain 90 percent effective, she said.

So, you wake in the night with a headache and grab some out-of-date paracetamol from the bathroom, is that a problem? Most likely not, she said.

"If it was me, I probably would. Now as a pharmacist, I can't recommend to my patients that they take expired medicines. But that was an example of something that's probably pretty low risk.

"If it's a commonly used pain medication, you're not going to be in severe pain if you're taking paracetamol. So, you could try it. But obviously, if it doesn't work, then it might have started to degrade."

But with an itchy eye would you reach for those old drops? Best not, Perry said.

"They've got a 30-day expiry generally and they could have bacterial growth in them. So, you could give yourself an eye infection by using an eyedropper that's expired. It does totally come down to the medicine."

Heat, humidity, light and other storage factors can affect the stability of medicines, she said.

"There are some things that are extremely moisture sensitive. Medicines we use for epilepsy like Epilim, another one we use as an anticoagulant called Pradaxa, they absorb moisture, and we have to be really careful about where we store them."

If a seal is cracked, or the packaging compromised, the chances are the medicine is best avoided, she said.

"As soon as you crack that lid, you could be introducing contamination, moisture, heat, it depends where you've been storing it as well."

Given that most of us have a hoard of old medicines in the cabinet how should we dispose of them?

"What we don't want patients doing anywhere is flushing medicines down the toilet, pouring antibiotics down the sink, throwing them in the bin, they do end up in the environment and that can have real ongoing issues, especially with antibiotic resistance, things like that, we don't want these medicines around.

"Also, we don't want someone to come across some of the rubbish and be exposed to them as well."

Get in the habit of regularly looking into your medicine cabinet and having a clear out and return them to your pharmacy, she said.

Also it may not be safe to take an older medication if your condition has changed, she said.

"That bottle of Naproxen, for example, it's an anti-inflammatory, do remember what we told you, when we gave the medicine to you? And we explained, how to take it and has your condition changed? Have your kidneys got worse since then, are you now on a blood thinner?

"Is there something else going on with your blood pressure? There's lots of things where actually, you might right not realise there's now red flags that you that you shouldn't take that."

Tips to use your medications safely

• Don't take anything after expiry date that needs refrigeration, like insulin, or biologic drug
• Don't take anything been hot, you've been carried around in your glove box or your handbag. Heat affects medicine
• Don't take anything that looks old, powdery is crumbling, discoloured or has a strong smell.

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