Hi i have been taking the medication Singulair....(Please read more)?

Question

so i have been taking the medication singulair for indoor and outdoor allergies

so on the bottle, it says expiration 5/11/08 and and i took a tablet a little bit after that date

my mom called the company and they said it was fine, it expires 6 months after the date

and of coarse, i was parranoid

so i searched up taking expired medicine and it says this: On average, over the counter medications should be disposed of after six months and prescription medication should be disposed of after a year before they expire.

i am the perscription one

so i dont understand what it means

like does it fully expire on 5/11/09 or what?

please help

i will add more details if nessccary

thanks!!!!

i will give best answer!!!!

=)

Answer 1

Hi, good question.  Simply put, the date of expiration means very little on tablets.  The concern with all chemical compounds is their 'stability', that is - their ability to remain intact over a period of time, as generally speaking drugs are only effective (efficacious) when they are in the proper conformation/shape.  However, over time, all compounds will begin to 'degrade' naturally.  This is just the way chemicals are, but often times this degradation can be slowed by keeping drugs in the fridge or dark (depends on the type of drug, but guidlines on the tablet-box should tell you how best to keep them).

The main concern would be that in a few years time a drug is no longer the same, as it has degraded to some extent.  The danger here would be that it would simply not be effective anymore, and people taking it may not realize they aren't getting the full required dose to manage their illness, and that could be detrimental for them.  It's less likely that the tablets would be harmful in their degraded form, but there may be some instances where this could happen.

Anyway, the main thing is that the day on the expiration date isn't precise in any way, but the best thing to do is only get your drugs in a maximum of 6 month-worth supplies, that way you will be obtaining more recently manufactured tablets on a regular basis, and do take time to read the pamphlet that is with your tablets to see what it recommends for storing them.

Here's a good article from the harvard med school that puts the issue across probably better-

"Drug Expiration Dates - Do They Mean Anything?"

With a splitting headache you reach into your medicine cabinet for some aspirin only to find the stamped expiration date on the bottle has passed - two years ago. So, 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 Pyschopharmacology 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.

Most of what is known about drug expiration dates comes from a study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. With a large and expensive stockpile of drugs, the military faced tossing out and replacing its drugs every few years. What they found from the study is 90% of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date.

So the expiration date doesn't really indicate a point at which the medication is no longer effective or has become unsafe to use. Medical authorities state expired drugs are safe to take, even those that expired years ago. A rare exception to this may be tetracycline, but the report on this is controversial among researchers. It's true the effectiveness of a drug may decrease over time, but much of the original potency still remains even a decade after the expiration date. Excluding nitroglycerin, insulin, and liquid antibiotics, most medications are as long-lasting as the ones tested by the military. Placing a medication in a cool place, such as a refrigerator, will help a drug remain potent for many years.

Is the expiration date a marketing ploy by drug manufacturers, to keep you restocking your medicine cabinet and their pockets regularly? You can look at it that way. Or you can also look at it this way: The expiration dates are very conservative to ensure you get everything you paid for. And, really, if a drug manufacturer had to do expiration-date testing for longer periods it would slow their ability to bring you new and improved formulations.

The next time you face the drug expiration date dilemma, consider what you've learned here. If the expiration date passed a few years ago and it's important that your drug is absolutely 100% effective, you might want to consider buying a new bottle. And if you have any questions about the safety or effectiveness of any drug, ask your pharmacist. He or she is a great resource when it comes to getting more information about your medications.

hope this helps, and good luck with the allergies!

Answer 2

its not dangerous. don't worry. the date is put on more for the manufacturers than the patients. the date just means that the medication may lose a little strength. nothing serious. you're not just gonna keel over dead from taking it. it just won't work as well