Is it okay to take expired medicine (Ritalin) for ADHD patients ?

Hello my friends,
I hope all of you are enjoying the hottest month of the year(July).

Recently I've been feeling a little lazy and have not managed renew my prescription medication which is Ritalin. Also I've been on holidays so I didn't even use my medication. I was going through my cupboard and found the following Ritalin blisters:

1- Blister 1: expired "03 2024"
2- Blister 2: expired "05 2024"
3- Blister 3: expired "06 2024"

My question is mainly that how long after expiry date are the medicines safe to use? My mate tells medicine like Ritalin(which is in blisters) is still safe to use even upto 2 years after the expiry date although its potency could be slightly reduced. Any thoughts ?

(edited 10 months ago)

Reply 1

Tracey_W

Original post by jonathan_Smith

Hello my friends,
I hope all of you are enjoying the hottest month of the year(July).
Recently I've been feeling a little lazy and have not managed renew my prescription medication which is Ritalin. Also I've been on holidays so I didn't even use my medication. I was going through my cupboard and found the following Ritalin blisters:
1- Blister 1: expired "03 2024"
2- Blister 2: expired "05 2024"
3- Blister 3: expired "06 2024"
My question is mainly that how long after expiry date are the medicines safe to use? My mate tells medicine like Ritalin(which is in blisters) is still safe to use even upto 2 years after the expiry date although its potency could be slightly reduced. Any thoughts ?

By right you shouldn't take them.... You should return them to your local chemist for disposal and get a new fresh prescription for those medications.

That's the reason why there's a expire date on them.

Sorry you shouldn't take anything that is two years out of date. Take them to the chemist and get yourself a new prescription and start taking your medication as you have to speak to a GP before you actually stop taking any medication.

If I was to give any of my patients out of date medication and they found out I would be in serious trouble.
We have to check every package is in date, and no damage to any of the medicines before we give it to any patients.

NHS registered midwife.