Question about Expiration of Hydrocodone

[Mikel]

Even though my Hydrocodone expired three years ago, is it still alright to take? I have heard the expiration is only a precautionary issue, and i wasn't sure. If anyone knows, what bad effects can happen from taking expired Hydrocodone (Vocodin ES) pills? Thank you for any help

[zuzu8]

MIKEL-
Expired drugs lose potency, and are probably completely ineffective after 3 years.
However, they CAN degenerate into substances which are seriously harmful to you. Chemically, I don't know what happens to hydrocodonewhen it breaks down, but it may be a risk you might not want to fool around with.

zuzu xx

[fudd]

Agreed - medications like birth control simply wear off (which is pretty bad, when you think about it). Others, such as tetracyclines, actually become toxic. Hydrocodone is a codeine/acetominophen formulation. The codeine part simply becomes ineffective, but the acetominophen part becomes acidic and can cause GI problems.

Originally Posted by zuzu8

MIKEL-
Expired drugs lose potency, and are probably completely ineffective after 3 years.
However, they CAN degenerate into substances which are seriously harmful to you. Chemically, I don't know what happens to hydrocodonewhen it breaks down, but it may be a risk you might not want to fool around with.

zuzu xx

[orion]

There was a USA army study done on drugs that had been stock piled for emergency use. They found that even after 10 years of being in storage in a warm environment the vast majority of drugs maintained their potency depite being long past their expire date.

It is true that some drugs can deteriorate into dangerous forms, but if you have stored your drugs in a sealed bottle I imagine they would be just fine.