Do drug expiration dates matter?

Yes, it does.

Comments

Alison Cummins
I wouldn’t take an expired antibiotic because I would assume it to have deteriorated introducing problems of resistance. But that’s not an issue, right? One takes the whole course of an antibiotic, always. So there’s never any used stuff left over anyway. Moot.
Other things, sure. Old aspirin? Absolutely.
I don’t know why people who are literate enough to read health information on the internet are assumed to be unable to tell the difference between an antibiotic and an OTC painkiller. As a layperson it pisses me off.
Anonymous
Interesting to gripe on literacy when you can’t select the correct pronoun or conjugate a verb.
“Yes, they do.”
Fastolfe
The article only really talks about the effectiveness of drugs past their expiration date. I was under the impression that some drugs (or maybe it was just one in particular) actually became toxic over time.
If the only real issue is one of effectiveness, I can’t really see a reason why I wouldn’t want to keep my old painkillers around. So what if they’re only 50% as effective? They’re still doing something, right?

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