What happens if you take medicine after it expires

Is it o.k. to take Medicine after it expired 7 months ago?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060613064807AAiKuzz

I see that most of the people who answered your question don’t watch the news. It was revealed in the past year or so that the expiration dates on prescription and over the counter drugs are far from realistic. Florida has just required pha…

Is it ok to take prescription medicine even after it expired??

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080820073356AAUxroV

It should be fine if it only expired a month ago. Usually, the worst that will happen with expired medication is that they will have decreased effectiveness. I have a suspicion that drug companies would love even shorter expiration periods.

Related Questions Answered on Y!Answers

What Happens if You take Expired Medicine?

Q: I just noticed my husband took some cough medicine that expired in 12-2006, will it make him sick? Or does it just make the medicine not as strong?

A: The expiration date mainly means that the medication is effective up until that date. After that it starts to break down and the ingredients lose their potency. It shouldn’t really make him sick. Some pharmacists/pharmacies actually send their expired medications to countries that can’t afford prescription medication, and they work just fine for those people.

expired zyprexa. what happens if you take it?

Q: I have a bottle of zyprexa. it expired this month. should i keep taking it? i know i’m going to get a bunch of “NO expired medicine is safe!” but i want to know if it has become a deadly toxin or just weakened. some medicines just become weaker, and therefore are not dangerous, just not as effective. anybody have any experience in this?I have a bottle of zyprexa. it expired this month. should i keep taking it? i know i’m going to get a bunch of “NO expired medicine is safe!” but i want to know if it has become a deadly toxin or just weakened. some medicines just become weaker, and therefore are not dangerous, just not as effective. anybody have any experience in this?i’m going off of the pharmacy bottle expiration date. i’m looking for the lot number now, but i’m not sure what it would look like.didn’t know it would truly add details, thought it would just edit them. sorry for the double post.

A: First of all, are you going by the expiration date that is listed on the label which was put on the bottle by your pharmacy (The traditional amber colored plastic bottles that they use where they put their own CVS, Walgreen’s, etc. label on it)? If so, then that does not necessarily mean that is truly the expiration date of that drug, as most all pharmacies just use a standardized 1 year from fill date as their expiration date. The truth is, every drug compound has its specific shelf life, so they are not all just one year.If you are looking at your pharmacy label, then I suggest you contact the manufacturer and give them the lot number of the pills that you have and then they can tell you the true exp date. If you cannot find the lot number on the bottle then you should be able to get this info from the pharmacy that filled it, as they have to keep these records.Now as for whether or not it will be dangerous for you to take even if it really is truly past its shelf life, well most likely it will not be. Most drug compounds just break down over time and loose their potency. There are some exceptions to the rule where they can break down and form toxic compounds or even manipulate in such a way that they will become more potent due to other excipients causing an amplification of the active drug compound. However to the best of my knowledge Zyprexa is not one of these exceptions.Just as an FYI, Zyprexa (if stored under normal room temp conditions) has a shelf life of 2 years.EDIT: Ok, if you cannot find the lot number, then can you tell me the date that it was filled, that will be on the bottle. If the date that it was filled was less than 2 years ago, then most likely it is not past its shelf life. If it is past 2 years, then yes it is past the shelf life, however, the shelf life is based off of accelerated and long term stability studies and in many cases those studies take into account asthetics (how the drug changes in appearance) and not just drug degradation. So with that being said, a lot of times, even though a drug has a listed shelf life of 2 years, it could still be an “under shot” of the true length of time that the drug remains 100% efficacious as it was when first produced. A lot of times you could even go a good 6 months past the manufacturers exp date and still not have any degradation of the active component, instead you just may notice things like dye fade, or pitting or color change, etc. Things that may not have any negative effect on the activity of the drug.I believe the lot number for that drug made by Lily should be in one of the below formats:AXXXXXX or AXXXXXX/XIf you need more assistance then you can email me at:[email protected]

Does anything bad happen when you take expired medicine?

Q: I had a cold so I took some Drixoral cold medicine. After I did, I looked at the packet and it said that it already expired in February 2008. Will anything seriously bad happen?

A: the expiration date is a date that the manufacture picks and guarentees that the medicine will have at least 90 % of its activity if stored correctly on that date. A year is the longest that I recomend taking the med after the exp date…Most drugs just loose their strength, but rarely durgs break down into something harmful..Drixoral is not one that is harmeful as far as I know and besides 1 year is not long enough to bge a problem.