How your medication has been stored can dangerously affect its efficacy!

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Can My Medication Spoil? YES, So Watch Out! Protect your medication
To ensure that your medication is safe and effective here are a few things you can do:

Read the storage instructions carefully and follow them.
Carry the medication with you while travelling instead of checking them in during a flight or keeping them in the trunk of the car where it may get too hot.
Buy very small quantities of medication if your area is prone to regular power cuts.
Make sure your pharmacy is air conditioned throughout the day and night especially if you live in areas which are very hot or cold.
The medicine cabinet in the bathroom may not be an ideal storage place because it may get too humid and moisture may play havoc with drugs. You need to look for alternative spaces in the bedroom or hallway cabinets.
Medicines are best stored in their original packaging. In case of elderly patients it may be necessary to use a pill box. Take care to store these boxes at in a cool dry place.
When buying medicines during very hot or very cold weathers, try not to keep them exposed to these extreme weathers for too long. Best would be to drive straight home from the pharmacy. Always get a cool pack along with heat sensitive medicines like insulin.
Be careful not to take medicines which have changed colour or consistency (even if well within the expiry date). Be suspicious of an unusual odor.
Discard pills that are stuck together, or show other physical changes, like gel capsules that have become harder or tablets that are mushier /softer than usual.

References:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1079525/

By Poonam Vaswani
Senior Dietitian Nutritionvista.com

NutritionVista

User Comments

22 May, 2012 | Vijayalakshmi Iyengar | Reply

Dangerous Drugs Should Not be trashed they should be Flushed!

According to The FDA, medications that are especially harmful and could potentially be fatal if taken accidentally should not be put in the dustbins/trash. Instead they should be flushed down the toilet or sink to eliminate any chance that a child or pet will find them.Drugs like morphine, methadone etc powerful pain relievers and other drugs that are widely used. Of even greater concern are the powerful narcotics delivered by patch, such as the drug fentanyl.
A complete list of the drugs recommended for flushing by FDA can be found on the agency's web site in the consumer section entitled "How to Dispose of Unused Medicines."

27 September, 2011 | Poonam | Reply

Patients who depend on home delivery of their medication from chemists need to be very careful if special storage conditions are needed for the medication. eg if you order insulin, ensure that it is delivered in ice packs because changes in temperature can lead to inactivation of the active ingredients.

26 September, 2011 | Vijayalakshmi Iyengar | Reply

Invariably medicine strips/capsules/bottles etc are not completely used and many of us leave it in the medicine chest for later use, if need. However many of them dont get used and we forget it way beyond expiry date only to throw it.
Today a number of charitable institutions accept medicines so its best to give away those tablets/capsules for a more needy person well within the expiry date.

27 September, 2011 | Sangeetha Narayana Swamy | Reply

Very good and sensible suggestion viji ma'am. The kids medications, especially the generic ones, which we buy and stock, can always be given to the underprivileged or donated to the Children homes or orphanages.

26 September, 2011 | Alpana Deshmukh | Reply

Unfair!! Pharma companies know a desperate patient will buy meds prescribed by the doctors anyways, so their sales will continue.However if they care they should come out strongly with the storage rules and regulations to maintain potency, as they do for polio vaccines. Medicines don't come cheap and nobody reads the fine print..

27 September, 2011 | Vijayalakshmi Iyengar | Reply

Dear Alpana much as I would like to join you in calling `foul, Pharmacists do tell us how to store it or when to take it for maximum efficacy and safety if we ask them, besides its our responsibility to read the fine print about the same. Nevertheless since 2006 world over and 2010 in India Pharmacological or PV has been set up and is monitored by `WHO International Drug Monitoring Programme' to ensure drug safety on all fronts.
With regard to disposal of unused and expired drugs please get more information from this site
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/BuyingUsingMedicineSafely/UnderstandingOver-the-CounterMedicines/ucm107163.pdf

26 September, 2011 | Srilekha Sudhakar | Reply

Very informative article. I hope all pharmacies, when they tell the people how to use the medication also tell them how to store it. This will be really beneficial for the patients. Also they should have a board with the do's and don'ts.

27 September, 2011 | Sangeetha Narayana Swamy | Reply

Dear Srilekha,

Thank you for the post. It's a very good suggestion, the pharmacists can always educate the person buying the medication about the storage details. Also they can always have a general instructions board put up in the pharmacy for handling of medicines in the pharmacy.

I have observed in some pharmacies here that the person giving the medicine is really not a qualified pharmacist. The question now is will he really be able to help senior citizens/patients on the storage of medicines?

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