Expired painkillers? Dangerous?

Question

Hello all, I have a couple of expired painkiller bottles in my medicine cabinet, and lately I've been having some pain from a muscle that I tore a while back. I was wondering if there is any danger in taking an expired pill. Flexirils to be exact, and they are about a year and a half old.

Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

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Depends on where you keep it and the type of medication.

There is a difference between expiration date of a medicine and shelf life.
A drug kept in a closed tight bottle does not suffer from the damaging effects produced by drastic changes in temperature or humidity and should be good for a long time pass the expiration date. But sadly, we tend to keep them in the worse place we can find for safe keeping (bathroom medicine cabinets) and shortens the shelf life way before its time.
Some medication like antibiotics have active ingredients that will lose potency and render them useless.

Other medications like ointments, eye or ear drops, is best to throw them out unless you are very sure they have not been contaminated and continue to be sterile.

Personally, I would take the flexeril because I'm sure it won't kill me, might not fix me but won't kill me. I take them all the time. A year and a half is kind of pushing it though, good luck! Hope you feel better soon.

Answer 2

In some medication Usually the only thing that could happen would be that painkillers will some of their strength. But more important i would think is the environment that you have the medicine in. If you keep it in the bathroom, toss it now because there is too much humididty in the bathroom and they degrade a lot faster, but if you store them say..in your bedroom its fine. It kinda all depends on the drug and the environment.

Answer 3

they wont become anymore dangerous when they expire than they are when they are new. they will only lose some of their potency. they are fine just probably not as strong.

Answer 4

Check with a pharmacist, but it's probably okay.

Answer 5

throw it out can be dangerous