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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
AnswerGenerally speaking, it is not recommended to take expired drugs (past the manufacturer's expiration date), and this included expired Benadryl. The main concern is that they may not have the same effectiveness or potency they had when they were in-date.You just don't know whether or not the medication is still good and there really isn't a perfect way to tell. Having effective medication is extremely important for certain situations that may be life-threatening.If you needed Benadryl to stem an allergic reaction, it would prudent to always have a bottle that is in date so you know it will give you an effective dose.Drug Expiration DatesThe official definition of the manufacturer's expiration date is as follows:"The date beyond which ideally stored medications in the unopened manufacturer's storage container or in most circumstances, the opened and intact manufacturer's storage container, should not be used."The manufacturer's expiration date is usually expressed as the month and year, or as a day, month, and year. The manufacturer of the drug determines the day the drug will expire based on the clinical trials it does for that drug.It almost never means that the drug goes "bad" after the date. The date on the bottle is the date up to which the manufacturer knows the drug still maintains its potency and safety as advertised. Simple as that!In reality, a drug may be good for a long time after the listed expiration date, but there just haven't been any studies on it to know one way or the other.Do Drugs Go Bad?Most drugs don't actually go "bad" but they may have lost potency and thus will not have the desired effect as mentioned above.Now, manufacturers typically use 2- to 3-year expiration dates because it is convenient. They don't need to perform longer stability tests...and the short dating assures the purchase of new drugs.They might not exactly know in 2-3 years if the drug is longer good, but they will put that on the bottle so they do not have to perform stability tests for longer periods of time.Harm from taking expired drugs is extremely rare and has only been linked to degraded tetracycline. There are rare reports of kidney damage in patients who took outdated tetracycline in the 1960s.Also, some degraded drugs do have an altered taste or smell. For example, aspirin is left out too long, does degrade, and has a foul odor associated with it when
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