Expired Klonopin

[kdineen11]

Its been some time since I had anything remotely close to an anxiety attack...I had taken a low dosage of Klonopin in conjuction with my Zoloft in the past to manage extra stress.  A stressful situation has come into my life and I had been debating taking some again.  As my prescriber is currently away I was considering taking some of the Klonopin that remained unused from 2 years ago.  The suggested expiry date is approximately 18 months passed.  My question is not whether I should or should not take it...as ethically I dont believe you can answer the question.  However the question posed is whether the chemical composition of the Clonazepam breaks down into something potentially harmful or whether typically the medication simply loses potency.  

[daystrom]

Hey mate, with all due respect to the pharmacist (and I truly respect pharmacists, MDs, now do not get me started on those morons when it comes to medications...), yer OK, fire the rivvie down range (sorry, we call clonaz Rivotril up here in Canada, not Klonopin).  The stuff ain't like tetracycline, yer kidneys are not gonna go to the crapper or anything, at worst the efficacy of the medication may be affected, and only marginally.  So take two :P  hahaha

peace bro  

ray

[Jennifer R, RPh]

As a health care professional I must respond stating that you should follow the recommendation on the bottle for the expiration date. Here is the phone number of one of the manufacturers of the generic product:
Apotex Corp
2400 N Commerce Pkwy. #400
Weston, FL 33326
1-800-706-5575

They may have extended studies on their product that are not included in the product monograph.

What I can tell you is here is the list of ingredients in the Clonazepam:

Active Ingredients: Clonazepam 2mg  
Drug Description: white, round-shaped, scored, side 1:APO C-2  
Inactive Ingredients: Lactose
Polyethylene Glycol

Listing just lactose (One Molecule of lactose consists of one molecule each of two other carbohydrates, i.e. galactose and glucose) and Polyethylene Glycol.

I will give you this information and let you draw your own conclusions as the safety of the product. The dosage for production must usually be within 5% of the labeled dosage to be considered (for example) a 2mg dose. After the expiration date on the bottle the dosage can no longer be guaranteed by the manufacturer to still be 2mg although the rate of decreasing efficacy varies based on the inactive ingredients and the active ingredients in each individual product.

Best of luck to you!

Jennifer R RPh www.drugstore.com