Expiration Date Ativan

2 Topics Found

I am a hospice nurse and the discussion has come up as to the shelf life of the narcotics that we use such as Ativan,Morphine, Dilaudid. Is there a blanket time that we can use for all narcotics that have expired expiration dates on the label. ## Okay first, Ativan is not a narcotic, it contains the active ingredient Lorazepam, which is a Benzodiazepine, so rather than treating pain, it is used to treat anxiety, nervous disorders and some severe cases of insomnia. Learn more: And second no, dispensing expired medications to your patients would be considered illegal under U.S. law. Are there any other questions? ## Calm down, Nurse Nancy geeesh ## Um. Yes, lorazepam IS a narcotic... Narcotic does not mean "illicit drug", that does not make any sense. The way that I see it, people...

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I have to have a MRI and have a couple of pills left from my last MRI from 3 years ago can I still use them ## Hi Barb, There's actually a lot of conflicting information around the topic of expired medication, but according to a Harvard Medical School family health article, except in rare cases (i.e. tetracycline), there is little chance of danger due to taking medications even up to 15 years beyond their expiration date. This conclusion was based upon a study conducted at the request of the US military due to stockpiles of expensive drugs they could otherwise need to replace every few years. The conclusion was that 90% of those drugs remained effective 10 - 15 years after the expiration date. But the question is whether or not the drug you have happens to be one of these drugs from...

1 REPLY Filed under Ativan

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