I've taken the wrong antibiotics. Stupid mistake.

[Thunderface]

They are the correct drug and dose but the wrong packet. They were prescribed to dd over a year ago. Look the very same as my current ones. I forgot we still had them. She didn't finish the course under advice from the doctor and they were left in the drawer.
I've had a quick Google and it seems to be a split between dire warnings and articles about expiry dates being way over cautious leading to massive waste.
I hope I haven't inadvertently made myself ill.
Has anyone done this or have any knowledge of likely effects?
Thanks

You’ll be fine, if they were that deadly there would be a bigger fuss over making sure you don’t have them. Obviously it’s not advised but I’m sure something that you have you around like that will ultimately do you no harm, just most likely won’t work the same/ at all

Have you checked they have actually expired? Drugs can have quite long expiry dates.

You'll be fine.

I can't check the expiry. They are in the little plastic tub from the pharmacy. It has the date they were dispensed but no expiry.

Amoxicillin.

Usually a shelf life of two years. And that's based on pretty bad storage conditions. Old penicillin family pills may be ineffective but are very unlikely to be toxic.

Amoxicillin has an expiry of two years from production, if stored in original packaging. If they’re in different packaging and have thus even exposed, they may not be effective AND can help contribute to the bacteria becoming resistant.

Be honest with your doctor about what happened, so if you need antibiotics again, they closely monitor whether they are effective to avoid health issues worsening. It’s unlikely, but worth keeping an eye on. For what it’s worth, there is a lot of cross national variation in antibiotic usage and storage. I am always told to take the whole course at once and pass out for the day; effective, but not the advice of most civilian doctors in the U.K. for example. This variation without efficacy reduction demonstrates that these drugs are quite flexible!

Thanks for the replies.
Feeling fine this morning (other than the issue that required the antibiotics in the first place).

Out of date abx just won’t be as effective, they won’t harm you. Amoxicillin is a broad spectrum abx. Just start taking the right ones. You’ll be fine.

Definitely fine.

Shelf lives are very conservative and medicines in a solid form don’t degrade much even past their expiry date. Amoxicillin doesn’t degrade to anything harmful anyway. The risk from them being in a bottle not a blister pack means the capsule is more likely to physically degrade because of exposure to moisture, but this would be visible. Microbial contamination is vanishingly unlikely unless they were actually soggy. (Wet amoxicillin is very chemically unstable...)

There’s no way I’d bother reporting this to my GP because I almost certainly know more about medicines formulation and stability than she does, however as I’m just a randomer on an internet forum you could speak to a pharmacist if you’re concerned.

This is in no way an endorsement of taking someone else’s meds or not keeping them according to the pack instructions (read the labels people!), but a single event is very low risk.

Providing you're not allergic to penicillin, you should be fine.