Oh no! Out of date medicine!

[SixImpossible]

My dermatitis has flared up so I dug out a tube of hydrocortisone ointment. But it's a year out of date!

Can I still use it? At least until I get to the doctor, which probably won't be until Tuesday now, at the earliest.

I think one month out of date is ok but not a year. May ask a pharmacist if there is anything OTC you could use until you can get a prescription.

You can buy hydrocortisone cream OTC

Forgot to say that it's 2% strength - prescription only.

My skin was so sore that I went ahead and used it last night. It's still effective. But I'll play safe and go to Boots today.

But I wonder: could OOD hydrocortisone be harmful? Or merely ineffective?

A bit of both. The active ingredient may have degraded and be less effective, and the other ingredients may have gone off so could cause a skin reaction.

You can't buy 2% hydrocortisone in the uk, only 1%, but you can get Eumovate cream over the counter. It contains clobetasone, which is considered a more potent steroid than hydrocortisone.

I'm a pharmacist,by the way.

Thanks, ScienceRocks (I agree, BTW).

I think I tried Eumovate a few years ago and it made my skin worse. The only things that helped were pimecrolimus and HC2.5% ointment. Even HC cream made my skin worse. The only cream I can tolerate during a flare-up is pimecrolimus, otherwise it has to be grease all the way.

Six, I'm the same with eczema creams, I have to use ointments! Looks like you need to go back to the doc's...

Very pleased that you have me good reason not to use my prescription strength HC, because I bought OTC 1%HC and it calmed the flare-up down brilliantly. A week ago my skin was swollen, cracking, bleeding and very sore. Today there's just a tiny patch of roughness left, it's smooth and soft, and not sore at all. So now I know that I don't need to use the strong stuff any more!

Thanks