Expired Medication

2 years! Do not use them. Could be dangerous. If you said two weeks, maybe a month I think that would have been OK but 2 years, no way.

My sister is a pharmacist and she told me that once the pills expire, they lose effectiveness.

Yes, it does go bad. It's not as effective. Call the pharmacy. See if the pharmacy can dispose of it safely for you, and call your doctor to see if they can give you a new prescription. If the prescription is over two years old then the script itself is expired and needs to be rewritten. Controlled substances need new written scripts every single time anyway.

Please don't take it-could damage your liver-a new liver will be far pricier than a new prescription..

Depending upon the type of pain medication they can very easily hurt your liver. It is one thing to use them a month or so after they expire but 2 years is 2 long

It isn't likely to harm you. It may have lost strength, partly or entirely. If in a snugly sealed bottle that minimized exposure to oxygen and moisture, it may still have most of its potency. Ask your pharmacist for advice, but if it were me, I'd probably try a prescribed dose and see whether it still helps. Don't take more than that, though, without a doctor's or druggist's advice. You wouldn't want to risk an overdose.

It might not be as potent as when new, but it shouldn't hurt you.

normally it wont hurt you but it may loose some effectiveness

Nothing magic happens the day the pills expire. The exp date is usually a conservative guess on the part of the manufacturer. But after 2 years I'd be ready to get a fresh batch.

My dr. prescribed a generous number of allergy pills for me. Later I learned from the pharmacist that I could choose to take (and pay for) a smaller amount. Just ask.

Ask a pharmacist .
My guess would be potency decreases as time passes.
Doubt if it would become harmful.

Most medication simply begins to lose effectiveness over time, but some start to break down into toxic compounds. Ask your pharmacist about your specific medication.

I personaly have take perscirption pain meds and anti inflamitory pills after they have expired cause as like yourself I only take them when absolutly needed and end up with left overs and have times that I just need it to get by. I have never had any bad effects from it.

Yes it goes bad - the "working" ingredients can weaken, and all the stuff they put in the pills (fillers, waxes, other things to help it pop out of the mold) can deteriorate. I have gotten off of about 5 medications and no longer need any stuff like aspirin or tylenol, so I just went through and cleaned out a whole bunch of stuff that had long since expired. Yes, it annoyed me that I had some nearly-full bottles, but I was also kind of thrilled to realize how long it had been since I had taken anything for pain, headaches, allergies and so on, now that I've gotten rid of all those symptoms through healthier means.

You probably know you cannot put them down the drain or flush them down the toilet, right? That just goes into the water we all use (via sewage treatment or general seepage into the water table) or it clogs the filters in the sewage treatment plants and messes up septic systems. Most towns have a way to collect expired meds (prescription and over the counter painkillers, vitamins, etc.) - our town has a special section on Hazardous Waste Day - we put any stuff we want to get rid of in our cars and drive to the DPW, where trained people sort through them according to hazard level (paints, weed killers, etc.) and the police and maybe drug enforcement people take charge of the medications. Sometimes your Board of Health will have a program as well. You can inquire at that department or the police department - in our town, they are extremely helpful and cooperative.

In the future, you can try to get a smaller prescription for something you don't think you'll take very often - I know that's hard to predict.