Do Prescription Medications Really lose their Potency after 1 year?

Answer 1

Remembering from something I read awhile ago...

The US military did a study of how long drugs can remain effective, so they would know when to replace the stocks they carry into the field. I think they found that, after a year or so, about 5% of the drugs were losing their potency. Since they can be in an extreme situation, they decided that that small loss was not worth the risk to someone who needed full potency, guaranteed, right now.

I am not a pharmacist or chemist, but to me, this would mean that after 13 months, I'd still be pretty likely to get a positive benefit from most prescriptions, as long as they've been stored properly. Don't extend this to stuff that has to be refrigerated, or is marked "use within 30 days", obviously.

Then again, I don't have many medications sitting around on the shelf at home. Some aspirin or advil or something like that, plus some vitamins, is about all I have. So if you take an aspirin only occasionally, don't think you're saving money by buying the 1000 pill bottle, if you're going to throw 975 of them away after 2-3 years.

Answer 2

Potentially, yes. It all depends on the chemical make-up of each prescription. Different compounds breakdown in different time frames. One year is a good general rule (although I have used prescriptions a few years old in a pinch and they worked ok, but it's completely random as to how effective it will be. Not to mention, drug interaction issues: You might be on different things now than when the script was given, so you might have interaction problems you'd be unaware of.
One year is a good rule of thumb. If in doubt, you could always consult your doctor or pharmacist for info on a specific script.

Answer 3

it extremely is the two, finding on the medicine and the way lengthy previous the date it extremely is. truly the expiration date says that when this date the drugs might have decomposed to an volume. besides the fact that if the products of that decomposition are volatile or impartial isn't particular and probably generally not popular. truly, after that date there are no ensures approximately what's interior the field, so which you're taking it at your guy or woman danger. in maximum circumstances it extremely is merely not a lot of a project; the main worry-unfastened result would be that it nonetheless works, yet not as properly. besides the fact that it truly is conceivable that it extremely is volatile, extraordinarily with drugs that are properly previous the expiration date. To be secure, you're able to in no way take drugs that are previous the expiration date.