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I was recently doing some research online about expired Advil. My wife and I noticed our bottle in the medicine cabinet had expired a year ago and were wondering if it was still effective. Turns out, there are many varying opinions on the subject. Some “experts” insist that most medications, especially if kept in the fridge, will last a good 10 years beyond their expiration date. Then you have the Pittsburgh Poison Control Center of The Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh warning: “Medications that have passed their expiration can pose a significant risk to children.”
So who to believe?
Well, here are some interesting thoughts/facts I tracked down on the subject:
1. The expiration date printed on the bottle has only been a law in the United States since 1979.
2. A drug maker is required by law only to prove a drug is still good on whatever expiration date the company chooses to set. The expiration date doesn’t mean the drug will stop working or become potentially harmful after it expires.
3. Liquid drugs are less stable than tablet/powder/capsule medications.
4. An interesting study was completed by the US military some 20 years ago, according to a piece in the Wall Street Journal by Laurie P. Cohen. It seems the military was sitting on a $1 billion stockpile of drugs and facing the daunting process of destroying and replacing its supply every 2 to 3 years, so it began a testing program to see if it could extend the life of its inventory. The testing, conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), ultimately covered more than 100 drugs, prescription and over-the-counter. The results showed that about 90% of them were safe and effective as far as 15 years past their original expiration date. (quoted from the Cohen piece)
5. Tetracycline type antibiotics and some seizure medications can cause toxicity if taken after they expire.
6. I wound up taking the expired Advil and it worked perfectly fine. My muscle pain went away and I lived to write about it. Placebo effect? I doubt it. Still, I wouldn’t recommend taking expired drugs without consulting your doctor. Advil is Advil, antibiotics and serious meds are another thing altogether.
Comments (14)
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If it expires, then you’re going to have to buy more right?
Hmmm…what a good marketing strategy.
posted by beth on 10-2-2008 at 8:57 am
David good to see that you have stepped into a role that Hunter S. Thompson left open.
posted by Don on 10-2-2008 at 9:35 am
Do not take expired Bismuth solution. It WILL make you sick.
I think if it’s expired you should go online and check the possible effects if taken. Your advil may have worked, but it probably did not work as effectively as it should have.
The thing I dislike about this article is that it gives those who believe in the pharma shill gambit and that doctors are evil and don’t care about you a little bit of “leverage”. I’m well aware that wasn’t your purpose. I just think there were more facts that support NOT taking an expired drug that you could use.
posted by Mattie on 10-2-2008 at 10:09 am
Oh my god! someone finally has the guts to say about the corruption of Big Pharma!! there’s other ways to cure headaches and pains. Thanks Mattie!
posted by Elizabeth on 10-2-2008 at 10:39 am
Pharmacies in Peru have discovered a way to get around that little fact… You can buy indivicual pills instead of having to buy the whole box. That way, you dont have to store the rest and wait patiently until they expire. It´s cheaper and not so wasteful! :)
posted by GTT on 10-2-2008 at 10:45 am
the thing i find facinating is that you went a whole year without needing some form of OTC pain reliever. wow. lucky you.
posted by motorkitty on 10-2-2008 at 12:47 pm
Whenever possible, people should not use expired medicine. Drugs go through a rigorous amount of testing prior to availability to the public. True, the pharma companies only have to prove a level of efficacy up to the expiry. However, sometimes drug degradation is not the only issue. In tablets/pills/etc there are a number of other factors that go into the final product (these include binding agents, dissolution agents, targeting agents) and these can also degrade along with the active ingredient. Say the binding agent erodes faster than the active drug; you could release a potentially harmful spike of drug into your system all at once. This fact, coupled with the increased likelihood of someone taking expired drugs to ignore other drug use directions, could prove dangerous and even potentially lethal.
Even minor degradation in certain antipsychotics (such as SRNAs) could increase the potential for drug addicition and side effects (considering that the main targeting components of these drugs are generally a step away from illegal addictive narcotics like meth).
The drug companies and FDA say that should the drug not work properly up to the date of expiry, it is their fault; beyond that it is the user’s. Is that a risk that you are willing to take?
posted by Jimmy on 10-2-2008 at 12:55 pm
Who cares about the drugs, the milk I had for breakfast this morning was dated Sept 30th.
Am I going to die?
(Explaining “Sell By” dates on food might be a good article)
reCaptcha: William Snelling
posted by Alareth on 10-2-2008 at 2:17 pm
I have this conversation with people all the time; when do products go bad. My yogurt is currently dated Oct 5, but does that mean at 11:59pm October 4, my yogurt is perfectly fine, but 1 minute later it is no longer edible? As if my yogurt, or your Advil can tell time or read a calendar!!
posted by Danielle on 10-2-2008 at 10:30 pm
Elizabeth, I think you completely misunderstood what I said.
I don’t believe in the pharma shill gambit or the “big pharma” is evil. That’s what I said in my comment. That expired medicines are expired for a reason.
Yes, there are ways to stop a headache that aren’t aspirin or tylenol but if you’re referring to homeopathy, that is DEFINITELY not something I am proponent of.
posted by Mattie on 10-3-2008 at 4:02 pm
My father was a doctor, and my parents tended to have a lot of medicine in their house. About 10 years ago, I was at their house and needed some antihistimine for my allergy to their dog. The only one they had was a box of Sudafed — that had expired in the late-1970’s. I took it, and it worked fine — 20 year later.
posted by Doug on 10-3-2008 at 8:18 pm
If your bottle of aspirin smells like vinegar, it’s because the acetylsalicylic acid has broken down into acetic acid (and won’t work as an NSAID). Buy a new bottle.
posted by Laura on 10-5-2008 at 10:44 am
I understand that most Western countries send large amounts of medication past it’s expiry date to the third world, because they can still use it but we can’t sell it here.
I wouldn’t recommend taking expired drugs though. As the article says, if you take Tylenol, it’s one thing, but other meds are a different bag altogether.
posted by Steve on 10-5-2008 at 11:23 pm
My grandmother says that medicine is good for up to a year after the expiration date. She also keeps the cotton wad in the Tylenol, insisting that it won’t hurt.
posted by Sara on 10-22-2008 at 12:54 pm