© 2008
Where Are Yours?
by Ellen Luse R.Ph
It is a golden oldie joke amongst pharmacists, but it is still funny ... at least to us! All pharmacists snoop when they are in another person's house. We want to know what medications you are on and what condition they are in. Once upon a time, a student pharmacist went to a party that was being held at a pharmacy professor's house. When he excused himself to use the restroom, the professor had a smile on his face. After the student had taken care of business, he decided to take a peek into the professor's medicine cabinet to see what medications a professor would take. When he opened the medicine cabinet door, a gazillion ping pong balls fell out! They bounced everywhere ... in the sink, in the tub, off the toilet...! What a red face this young pharmacist had when he rejoined the party!
This is often a pharmacy school lead-in to a lesson about medication storage. So where DO you keep your medications? In the medicine cabinet? In the kitchen? Those are the frequent choice of many people, but they are not the best choice by far. There are several things that lead to medications breaking down before their time. The first is heat. Golly, a nice hot shower feels good after a day at work! One of the best breakfasts I know of is pancakes with bacon/sausage, but it's a hot job for the cook! And the medications start to break down. Then comes the moisture from that shower or from washing the dishes after that great breakfast you fixed. The medication breaks down a little more. Then there is that antibiotic you didn't quite finish so you saved it in case you need an antibiotic on the weekend when your doctor is unavailable. Antibiotics are one of the worst groups of medications to break down because of age. Some are even deadly when they break down!
Let's talk a little bit about safe storage of medication and the facts about how long a medication is stable under ideal conditions. Ideal conditions are dark, cool (not cold) places and a bottle that is devised for storage of that specific medication. When they are received in your pharmacy, they have an expiration date. This date may vary widely, but most medications will last at least two years on the pharmacy shelf. When you receive your bottle of medicine, the expiration date will usually display a date that is one year from the date the medication is put in the bottle. Why isn't the original expiration date put on your bottle? That date is mandated by most states' Boards of Pharmacy and the federal Food and Drug Administration with the assumption that once the medication leaves the pharmacy, the likelihood of ideal storage is nil. Also, the manufacturer's bottle is made to ideal specifications for that medication's storage, but the bottle you get from your pharmacy is not.
So, where should you store your medication? It sometimes depends on your family structure. Are there children in the house, or children that visit frequently? If there are, you need to find a place that is safe, or as safe as you can make it, from their curious investigations. One such place is a hall closet. It's dark and usually at a fairly even temperature with little moisture. If you lived in my house, that would not work either because my hall is also my laundry room! The next best place is in your bedroom closet, up on the top shelf. And while we are on the subject of storage, what medications should you store? Only medications that you are currently taking by order of your physician! I won't argue with you about pain medicine, but toss it after a year. Antibiotics? There shouldn't be any except those you are currently taking for an infection. You really do need to take all of the antibiotic that your physician prescribes ... IT IS IMPORTANT!! If, for some reason, you do have antibiotics remaining, please throw them away. Antibiotics are the worst medications in the world for having dangerous effects as they start to degrade.