Out of date Prednisolone tablets

[Retallack]

Following a cortisol test last week the result said "at 314nmol/l - making adrenal insufficiency highly unlikely". I have been on 1mg for about 4 months so now plan to drop to 1/2mg using the usual slow taper plan. I have quite a few unopened packets of pred of 5mg and 1mg tablets - mostly because the pharamcy were doubling my medication requests ! Can someone tell me how long the unopened packets will keep for as they are all now out of date. Thank you.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

The official answer is - don't use them. The sensible answer is use your common! How far out of date are they?

They don't spontaneously self-destruct on a specific date and studies have found that hard dry tablets kept in the correct conditions (not too cold, not above about 25C and not somewhere potentially damp) don't deteriorate over periods of years. If anything at all, they may be a bit less potent but since you are reducing anyway, that is immaterial.

[Retallack in reply to PMRpro]

Thank you. I have 2022 and 2021 so perhaps I should ditch the 2021 pills and keep the others "just in case" !

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Retallack]

Think I'd ditch the older ones. But it is cheap as chips - and it always is a good policy tto consciously use up any nearing their use-by date.

[rosie_jones in reply to Retallack]

Please don't ditch them - take them to the pharmacy and ask for them to be disposed of - don't know quite what they do with them, but it's going to be safer the putting them in the bin . (And apologies if you knew this already!)

[Twopies]

pmrpro is right…use em! I once saw a study that said the official length of time is one year, however, the researchers tested two year old prednisone pills and they were fine.

[piglette]

The “sell by” date is often a totally arbitrary date chosen by the manufacturers and it us highly unlikely the drug will stop working totally after that date. A lot of medications can be kept for well over their sell by dates, it also depends how they were stored. If they were in a cool dark place they will last much longer than if you had them on the windowsill in bright sunshine. Dr Ben Goldsmith talks about drug life in one of his books and he reckoned he was happy to take some drugs years over the recommended date. One study looked at 122 different drug products and tested them regularly over more than five years. For almost 9 out of 10 products, testing showed the medicine stayed stable for 66 months. And a small minority was still just as effective 15 years later.

[Pollyanna16]

Great to hear you are down to 1/2 mg & very best wishes for the end of your journey 🤞🤞xx

[Retallack in reply to Pollyanna16]

Thanks Polyanna for your good wishes and for your support at the beginning 4 years ago in Truro.

[Kingfisher489]

I think you shouldn’t use out of date medicines of any description. Also my GP said not to break tablets. So to reduce to 1/2mg it’s preferable to take 1mg on alternate days. This has worked for me. Good luck.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Kingfisher489]

We don't think 1mg on alternate days is better so that is a personal opinion, In the rest of Europe it is normal to be given tablets and cut them if you need a half dose - we all survive! What is his objection? Over the 2 days you take the whole tablet so any discrepancy will balance out. If you take doses on alternate days there is a chance you will have a return of symptoms on the non-pred day.

After all, why would pharmacies sell pill cutters if it were not to cut tablets in half?

[Retallack in reply to Kingfisher489]

Thank you for your thoughts but I have used a pill cutter to get the 1/2mg when needed throughout my journey without mishap so far. Incidentally my OH's BP medication has just been halved by his GP who said he should cut the pills he has in half to save the m from being thrown away if possible. Obviously they all have different ideas ! 😒