I have some old pain medication, percocet and vicatin, about three pills of each type.?

Question

Both of the perscriptions expired in 2002 and on the containters it is said to discard after 2002. Would it be safe to use this pain medication now, in 2007, due to a new injury to my neck or would it be unsafe to my health?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

The effectiveness will be gone by now...get rid of them.

Answer 2

if expired it is no longer good. Since this is a new injury the Dr. may prescribe something different for the pain. Please discard medicine it is no longer good

Answer 3

It is probably not dangerous to your health, but it more than likely will be ineffective because the older the meds are the more their potency diminishes. Most meds have a shelf life of about a year. Best to pitch them and get fresh meds.

Answer 4

They must put expiration dates on them for a reason. I don't know about if it would be dangerous to your health but you really should probably throw them away.
Besides, if your pain is bad enough to take meds, you should see a doctor to prescribe the appropriate medication.
Good Luck, hope you get some pain relief soon

Answer 5

They can actually change chemical composition over time, so I would not take them. It would probably be OK if it were 2003, but 2002 was 5 years ago. I don't think they would hurt you, but they probably won't work. I wouldn't take them. Go to the DR. or ER and they'll probably give you an RX for one of those. You might need an x-ray anyway depending on what your injury was.

Source(s):

nurse