Will this expired Zithromax help me?

January 2, 2015 8:16 AM

You are not my doctor or pharmacist. My doctor is on vacation until Monday. I have the onset of bronchitis. I've had it 20 times or more in the past 10 years. I know how to handle it, but I have to jump through the usual hoops to get the meds I need. However, I have an expired Z-pack - expired 2012. If I take it, will it help me?

I'm not looking for lectures. I'm looking for facts. I have the onset of bronchitis. I've had it so many times, I know the drill. I always get the same prescriptions for it - a Z-pack, an inhaler (for bronchitis-induced asthma) and a narcotic cough syrup.

My doctor is on vacation. My doctor's practice can't see me until next week. They want me to go to their urgent care, which my insurance won't cover. I refuse. I have an old Z-pack (legally acquired but expired). It expired in 2012. If I take it, will it help me? My vet has said most antibiotics are good for years beyond their expiration date. Are they? It's a tablet, not a capsule.

Remember, I WILL be going to see a doctor on Monday, but by then, bronchitis will have me firmly in its grip.

posted by clarkstonian to Health & Fitness (14 answers total)

It is still good but may be weaker than you need it to be. Go ahead and start it, but see your doctor on Monday for a follow up and probably a second round of antibiotics.
posted by myselfasme at 8:30 AM on January 2, 2015

Seriously, don't take expired medications. Also, just go to the pharmacy and talk to the pharmacist.

Another option is going to MinuteClinic.

Also, you can tell your doc's practice that you're willing to see any doc at the practice or at least ask one to please call you.
posted by discopolo at 8:30 AM on January 2, 2015

Best answer: I would take the Zithromax. Those expiration dates are essentially arbitrary. See, for example, this article.
posted by alex1965 at 8:38 AM on January 2, 2015 [7 favorites]

Is it a complete Z-pack, or one that you started taking and then stopped?
posted by invisible ink at 8:39 AM on January 2, 2015

Best answer: You should take it. The expiration dates on drugs are, as alex1965 indicates, made up. Two years is trivial:

So the expiration date doesn't really indicate a point at which the medication is no longer effective or has become unsafe to use. Medical authorities state expired drugs are safe to take, even those that expired years ago. A rare exception to this may be tetracycline, but the report on this is controversial among researchers.

Source: health.harvard.edu
posted by DarlingBri at 8:44 AM on January 2, 2015 [9 favorites]

Chronic bronchitis and antibiotic dependency/resistance sounds like a bad recipe. Once you get this situation figured out I would recommend treating the cause of your problems rather than the symptoms.
posted by SamMiller at 9:16 AM on January 2, 2015

I also get bronchitis yearly, sometimes twice a year. In fact I'm recovering from it right now. All my life I've been given antibiotics for it but my current doctor of 3 years will not prescribe antibiotics for bronchitis. Instead she prescribes an albuterol inhaler and a fluticasone inhaler, and recommends Mucinex and a cough suppressant at night if the cough is keeping me awake. Plus lots of fluids, steamy showers to break up the congestion, and rest.

Check out the following:

For more than 40 years, trials have shown that antibiotics are not effective for acute bronchitis.

Antibiotics do not make bronchitis symptoms less severe or help them go away sooner. We know that based on strong evidence from many studies.

Bronchitis is almost always caused by viruses. Antibiotics only treat bacteria, and cause more harm than good when used needlessly.
posted by Majorita at 9:38 AM on January 2, 2015 [9 favorites]

Majorita posted what I came to post; If you take the z-pack it will very likely not help you and will contribute to antibiotic resistance, which hurts everyone.
posted by Justinian at 10:06 AM on January 2, 2015

discopolo: Seriously, don't take expired medications.

That is a wasteful, unsupported opinion. Expired medications are (as many have noted) usually still very effective.
posted by IAmBroom at 11:11 AM on January 2, 2015

stoneweaver: If it has been in a bathroom

Please explain how the medicine knows what room it is in.
posted by IAmBroom at 11:13 AM on January 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Humidity and moisture.
posted by Justinian at 11:15 AM on January 2, 2015 [8 favorites]

Response by poster: The Zithromax has been properly stored in a cool, dry, dark place; it is a full pack.

As I said, you are not my doctor. I have complicated health issues. I WILL be told to take Zithromax on Monday. You all spend quite enough on my health care. I would rather minimize the damage for all concerned. I am seen by a specialist, I cannot go to a Minute Clinic. I know the root cause of my recurring bronchitis. It can't be helped.

I have taken the Zithromax. Thank you.
posted by clarkstonian at 11:49 AM on January 2, 2015 [6 favorites]

I'm glad you got the answers you seek. If you have a question like this again, just wanted to suggest that you can call your local pharmacy and ask the pharmacist. If you have a chronic condition, they probably know you. :) Trust me, they hear weirder stuff and would probably have told you something similar (it's probably ok if you stored it in a cool dry place, but you should see a Dr. ASAP (which I know you are doing)). They can also do things like call the doctor's office and say, "Clarkstonian has bronchitis again, is the refill nurse ok with them* starting a ZPak now, and seeing Dr. Person on Monday when they return?" Often the refill nurse will say yes, because they know your situation and don't want you to get real bad either.

Source: my Dad's a pharmacist, and I have chronic lung conditions. (Sympathy to you because I know they suck!)

Get better soon.

*bad grammar but I don't know your gender, so it's a generic them
posted by RogueTech at 2:35 PM on January 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Expiration dates on a lot of medication are fairly arbitrary, and just relate to how much the active ingredient loses effectiveness over time. Many antibiotics, however, do expire, in ways that can be detrimental to your health.

Ignoring for the moment all the reasons, some mentioned/linked to above, that antibiotics aren't really an effective or advised treatment for issues like bronchitis (if the inflammation is caused by a cold virus rather than an infection, antibiotics are gonna do fuck-all for it), a doctor once gave me a pretty simple test:

Do they smell sour? Like yogurt beginning to go off? Then don't take them.
posted by aspersioncast at 12:29 PM on January 3, 2015