any of you on prescribed meds?

[7 lives]

Know where you are coming from on this-I take 11 medicines including long term prednisolone and nebs for chronic lung disease-should the shtf I like many others would be in a right old pickle.
I keep a 2 month stock in hand -after that don't know!
Wonder how long one can use medication beyond the sell by date?

[filsgreen]

As a mental health nurse, I would advise that you speak with your doctor/community nurse with a view to reducing your dependency on Sertraline. As mentioned previously there is St. John's wort which is s natural remedy for depression. You could also buy a light box which reduces melatonin and produces light up to 10000 candles. Although this will be no use in a power cut. Depression is a chronic illness and not something you can shrug off, nor can you just stop taking Sertraline. Good luck with whether you choose to do.

Phil

[Hamradioop]

Know where you are coming from on this-I take 11 medicines including long term prednisolone and nebs for chronic lung disease-should the shtf I like many others would be in a right old pickle.
I keep a 2 month stock in hand -after that don't know!
Wonder how long one can use medication beyond the sell by date?

from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/460159

First, the expiration date, required by law in the United States, beginning in 1979, specifies only the date the manufacturer guarantees the full potency and safety of the drug -- it does not mean how long the drug is actually "good" or safe to use. Second, medical authorities uniformly say it is safe to take drugs past their expiration date -- no matter how "expired" the drugs purportedly are. Except for possibly the rarest of exceptions, you won't get hurt and you certainly won't get killed. A contested example of a rare exception is a case of renal tubular damage purportedly caused by expired tetracycline (reported by G. W. Frimpter and colleagues in JAMA, 1963;184:111). This outcome (disputed by other scientists) was supposedly caused by a chemical transformation of the active ingredient. Third, studies show that expired drugs may lose some of their potency over time, from as little as 5% or less to 50% or more (though usually much less than the latter). Even 10 years after the "expiration date," most drugs have a good deal of their original potency. So wisdom dictates that if your life does depend on an expired drug, and you must have 100% or so of its original strength, you should probably toss it and get a refill, in accordance with the cliché, "better safe than sorry." If your life does not depend on an expired drug -- such as that for headache, hay fever, or menstrual cramps -- take it and see what happens.

One of the largest studies ever conducted that supports the above points about "expired drug" labeling was done by the US military 15 years ago, according to a feature story in the Wall Street Journal (March 29, 2000), reported by Laurie P. Cohen. The military was sitting on a $1 billion stockpile of drugs and facing the daunting process of destroying and replacing its supply every 2 to 3 years, so it began a testing program to see if it could extend the life of its inventory. The testing, conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), ultimately covered more than 100 drugs, prescription and over-the-counter. The results showed that about 90% of them were safe and effective as far as 15 years past their original expiration date.

In light of these results, a former director of the testing program, Francis Flaherty, said he concluded that expiration dates put on by manufacturers typically have no bearing on whether a drug is usable for longer. Mr. Flaherty noted that a drug maker is required to prove only that a drug is still good on whatever expiration date the company chooses to set. The expiration date doesn't mean, or even suggest, that the drug will stop being effective after that, nor that it will become harmful. "Manufacturers put expiration dates on for marketing, rather than scientific, reasons," said Mr. Flaherty, a pharmacist at the FDA until his retirement in 1999. "It's not profitable for them to have products on a shelf for 10 years. They want turnover."

The FDA cautioned there isn't enough evidence from the program, which is weighted toward drugs used during combat, to conclude most drugs in consumers' medicine cabinets are potent beyond the expiration date. Joel Davis, however, a former FDA expiration-date compliance chief, said that with a handful of exceptions -- notably nitroglycerin, insulin, and some liquid antibiotics -- most drugs are probably as durable as those the agency has tested for the military. "Most drugs degrade very slowly," he said. "In all likelihood, you can take a product you have at home and keep it for many years, especially if it's in the refrigerator." Consider aspirin. Bayer AG puts 2-year or 3-year dates on aspirin and says that it should be discarded after that. However, Chris Allen, a vice president at the Bayer unit that makes aspirin, said the dating is "pretty conservative"; when Bayer has tested 4-year-old aspirin, it remained 100% effective, he said. So why doesn't Bayer set a 4-year expiration date? Because the company often changes packaging, and it undertakes "continuous improvement programs," Mr. Allen said. Each change triggers a need for more expiration-date testing, and testing each time for a 4-year life would be impractical. Bayer has never tested aspirin beyond 4 years, Mr. Allen said. But Jens Carstensen has. Dr. Carstensen, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin's pharmacy school, who wrote what is considered the main text on drug stability, said, "I did a study of different aspirins, and after 5 years, Bayer was still excellent. Aspirin, if made correctly, is very stable.

[7 lives]

Wow thank you so much for that- I did have a vague wonder whether the use by dates were to protect consumers from the product degrading or whether it was more a business stategy-

[PreparedKent]

As a mental health nurse, I would advise that you speak with your doctor/community nurse with a view to reducing your dependency on Sertraline. As mentioned previously there is St. John's wort which is s natural remedy for depression. You could also buy a light box which reduces melatonin and produces light up to 10000 candles. Although this will be no use in a power cut. Depression is a chronic illness and not something you can shrug off, nor can you just stop taking Sertraline. Good luck with whether you choose to do.

Phil

Without wanting to sound rude, you say you are a mental health nurse yet made a totally ridiculous statement like that. If I were an epileptic would you recommend I stopped taking my anticonvulsant? If I had a heart problems would you tell me to reduce my dependence on medication??

And unlicensed (possibly MAOI) herbal medication instead of medication that has been through phases of trials before having years of successful prescribing? Worrying!!

[izzy_mack]

I take 2 different sets of drugs for 2 conditions. one drug is nasty and requires me to have a blood test every 4 weeks to make sure it's not damaging organs.

I have 4months extra supply of 1 and 3 months of another. The 1st I feel guilty about because boots chemist gave me a bottle of 100 instead of 24 and I would normally have gone back and told them about it as I'm basically an honest person, but as I had no hope of stocking up much on this particular drug I fought off my conscience and kept them. The others I started collecting 2years ago, every so often I would "forget" to take them for one day and slowly have built up a supply, sometimes I felt less well than I might have so I picked days to suit. I then rotate the stored packets in turn with new ones to keep them in date. This will not keep me alive and functioning forever and I'll have to take my chances without the blood tests, but I hope it gives me a few months to help my family re-adjust to whatever life style they have to adopt.

[CynicalSurvival]

Yes, I am, pretty serious condition but well-managed. As others have suggested, I have built up a stock (currently 6 months) by ordering every 6 weeks or so even though I get 8 weeks supply.

Regarding the previous discussion, I would say as a psychologist that there is quite a difference between the OP getting off anti-depressants v's weaning off drugs for a physical ailment (such as mine). Depression can be well managed or (hopefully) overcome via therapy and alternative treatments, while epilepsy and heart conditions cannot. If you have a psychological condition, an excellent 'prep' would be to get counselling/CBT and thereby seek out a more sustainable and permanent solution to your issues. I am not for a moment saying this is easy, but it is doable by most people in my view, especially with the right social support.

[cornerstone]

yes i am and my son i have built up a stock of 6 months for him and 3 months for me that i rotate so always have it in, it is a good idea at the yearly review to ask for a month then just order at the time, that gets you a quick month.

[cornerstone]

As a mental health nurse, I would advise that you speak with your doctor/community nurse with a view to reducing your dependency on Sertraline. As mentioned previously there is St. John's wort which is s natural remedy for depression. You could also buy a light box which reduces melatonin and produces light up to 10000 candles. Although this will be no use in a power cut. Depression is a chronic illness and not something you can shrug off, nor can you just stop taking Sertraline. Good luck with whether you choose to do.

Phil

Without wanting to sound rude, you say you are a mental health nurse yet made a totally ridiculous statement like that. If I were an epileptic would you recommend I stopped taking my anticonvulsant? If I had a heart problems would you tell me to reduce my dependence on medication??

And unlicensed (possibly MAOI) herbal medication instead of medication that has been through phases of trials before having years of successful prescribing? Worrying!!

can i just say you need to be very careful with herbs and in particular with st johns wort, i have had a very bad experience with both, they increased my blood pressure systolic by almost 40 points.
people think herbs are an innocent thing, some herbs are not to be played about with, you need to know exactly and i mean exactly what you are doing.

[Mad Scientist]

My herbal advice comes from two courses I've done taught by a medical herbalist who's run a herbal pharmacy for years. I would only make tinctures for myself to deal with minor ailments. Anything worse I always go to my doctor. Never, never never buy meds online.