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medicine cabinet for some aspirin only to find the stamped expiration date on the medicine bottle is more than a year out of date.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.
More @ Harvard Health
The army did a similar study. Expired meds was costing them serious change. They determined that solid meds are good "forever". Liquids have strict dates.
ReplyDelete--generic
My VA pills still have expiration dates. Moving between two VAs I was sent extra (& why I was checking) but it is certainly good to have them as we never know. Thanks.
DeleteI read several years ago, other than some very few limited drugs. Most tabs and capsules are 90% to 97% effective after 15 years. I'm sure if you check the "Law" that required an expiration date was promoted and backed by the drug companies. Can't let good drugs lay around when they can be thrown away and new purchased.
ReplyDeleteBadger
I'm sure if you check the "Law" that required an expiration date was promoted and backed by the drug companies. Can't let good drugs lay around when they can be thrown away and new purchased.
DeleteI bet!
That's unlikely. Since med are sold by the dose, there are no leftovers. So there is no incentives for drug companies to monkey with expiration dates. The most likely answer is that the FDA makes testing drugs so expensive that drug companies didn't want to be burdened with proving shelf life issues.
ReplyDelete--generic
the FDA makes testing drugs so expensive that drug companies didn't want to be burdened with proving shelf life issues.
DeleteMakes sense.