Effectiveness Of Old Medication (Top voted first)

Can I still benefit from taking 10 year old Morphine Sulfate 20mg/ml oral solution

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Hi Smith! After a medication expires, it lose"s it's effectiveness. Especially after 10 years. U should call your Doctor 4 a new prescription.

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@Smith,

According to a Harvard Medical School family health article, except in rare cases (i.e. tetracycline), there is little chance of danger due to taking medications even up to 15 years beyond their expiration date. This conclusion was based upon a study conducted at the request of the US military due to stockpiles of expensive drugs they could otherwise need to replace every few years. The conclusion was that 90% of those drugs remained effective 10 - 15 years after the expiration date.

I don't know whether or not the drug you have happens to be one of these drugs from the study... (I have not seen the list of drugs used in this study). But I'd imagine that most pain medications (OTC or Rx) would certainly be drugs of interest upon making such claims.

Source: health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/update1103a.shtml

Unless you're able to determine if your medication falls under this category, I wouldn't suggest taking any chances just to play it safe. I suppose the only real way to know if it maintained it's potency after expiration would be to have it lab tested; which could potentially cost just as much or more than refilling your prescription.

I hope this info helps!

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