Volume 7, Issue 5

Where do You Keep Your Medications?
Contributed by: Kari Wiesin, Pharm.D. Candidate
                      KU School of Pharmacy

November 2008

Take a look around your house; are there some things that have places they just belong? Bread may be in the breadbasket, coats may be in the coat closet, and you may pick up your prescriptions and put them away in your bathroom medicine cabinet. But if your medicine cabinet is in the bathroom where your take hot, steamy showers that may not be where your medicine belongs! There are better places to store your medicines to help them work their best for you!

Let's start with common places prescriptions are kept in the home. Bathrooms, while common, may be too humid for your prescriptions and, over time, that may harm them. Another place people sometimes keep their prescriptions is in their car. This can expose your medication to hot temperatures and direct sunlight that may make the pills not work as well. Still others think a dinnertime medicine can be kept on the kitchen sink for easy remembering. But that puts them close to water and humidity, which can hurt them! Heat, moisture, and direct light can hurt most prescription medicines. Try to keep your medicine in a dry, cool place out of direct light!

Some other storage tips to keep your prescription in tip-top shape are to remember to throw away the cotton that may have come in the vial. The cotton may suck moisture out of the air and bring it into the vial. You should also try not to store medicine in the refrigerator or freezer that doesn't say to do so. This could cause

your medicine to become too thick to pour. It's also always best to keep your medicine in the container it was dispensed or purchased in. This can not only help protect your medicine but also help you to remember what the medicine is and the directions for taking it!

And don't forget wherever you store your prescriptions to keep them out of the reach of children and pets!

Pop Quiz!
Where is the best place to store your prescription medicine?
A. In my dank, moist basement on top of my dryer.
B. On the dashboard of my car.
C. In my bathroom where I take hot showers.
D. In a cool, dry place out of direct sunlight.

Which of these are true?
A. I should keep my medicine in a cabinet low enough my dog can reach.
B. I should keep my liquid prescription in the freezer even though it doesn't say to.
C. I should leave the cotton in my new prescription vial for cushioning.
D. I should keep my medicine in the vial it was dispensed in.

If you answered D to both the Pop Quiz questions you get an "A" in medication storage!

Co-edited by:
Sarah Hare, Pharm.D.
Kristian Olsen, Pharm.D.

Inside this issue: