Out of date Antibiotics ?

[catandcoffee]

Has anyone ever taken them past the date and they still worked ?
I know the Experts say no but wondering if you've ever done it

I did read a pharmacist’s post saying tablets that were out of date may have reduced efficacy but that liquid medication should be discarded as they would be unstable.

More to the point why have you got left over antibiotics? Not finishing the course and allowing residual bugs to build up resistance to antibiotics is why we are dangerously close to the situation where we have very few really good one left.

Or did you ask for them to be prescribed and then didnt use them? Wasteful. And back to overuse , taking out of date antibiotics that aren’t recommended for the condition is another way to lessen antibiotic effectiveness.

Some people will have an emergency kit with steroids and/or antibiotics prescribed so they can start prompt treatment for certain medical conditions when they start a flare up (as these things invariably happen at a time it’s difficult to promptly access your gp). Someone having unused antibiotics doesn’t immediately mean they have misused a prior prescription.

I believe tetracycline becomes potentially toxic past its use by date op. Liquids won’t keep well. I guess the biggest issue for other ones is if they remain 100% effective past their use by dates, so always better to get in date replacements.

I was given antibiotics as a precaution after egg collection for ivf in October. I was told to take 9 tablets (3 a day) but they had to give me a full pack, so have 5 left over.

How far out of date OP? If within a few months I'd ptovably take them.

I would chuck liquids.

Every GP I know uses the standard ones years past their use by date if they've got them in.

It's also a bit of an urban myth about not finishing your course of antibiotics causing antibiotic resistance. It isn't how antibiotic resistance happens, which has been known for decades, but it sounds good and is an easy concept to understand - probably because it's not true

www.livescience.com/59951-should-you-finish-antibiotics.html

Thanks for the helpful advice and none judgement posts.

As mentioned by a poster they were administered over the phone for an ongoing illness that was flaring up BUT I managed to stop the flair up

Nearly a year out of date 😐

I'd use them if they aren't liquid - expiry dates are often there because that is all the manufacturer has tested them to. They may have a tiny bit less active ingredient & may have more breakdown products but these will miniscule.
More to the point, should you be taking antibiotics without checking with a doctor first? My DH has antibiotics in case of infections, so he would, but just checking.

Liquids - no they cannot be used after their expiry date.

Tablets and capsules may be OK. The active ingredient won't degrade much in the solid form (if the shelf life was 3 years originally, not much bad will happen during the next year or so) but the tablet or capsule matrix might become a bit crumbly.

(I may or may have some extremely expired paracetamol that I'm still using and it still works.)

However, having said that, my professional advice to another professional would be no, don't use unless you really have no alternative.

My advice to the public would be

• don't take prescription only medicines that have not been prescribed for you
• don't take antibiotics that were prescribed for you for a different illness because you don't know that it's the right one this time
• don't embark on a half-used course that may not be long enough to deal with the infection otherwise you're going to have to have a difficult conversation with a GP later on.

I have antibiotic cream that's 17 years old an still works, op, just to put it in context

I asked the doctor about this. She said she didn’t think the antibiotics had an expiry date!!

Yes, they will still work.
I've done it, I'm still here.

Tablets though, I've never had liquid

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7040264/

Here you go, op. The US army ran a test and almost all tablet antibiotics were effective up to 15 years beyond expiry date

Dear lord, what do they teach them these days?

Doesn't look the most reliable of websites.

She seems quite newly qualified and keen. I was a bit agog I must say!

Probably not very effective any longer. Not dangerous but a new prescription is needed.

Which antibiotic is it?
Some will be different to others I suspect, and that could make a difference.