Rx Mistakes Pharmacists Want You to Quit Making

For starters, take your pills out of the medicine cabinet

- Jancee Dunn

I recently visited my parents, and I was ransacking their kitchen for snacks when I noticed something: Their medications were in a cabinet near their oven.

"Keeping your meds there isn't ideal," I told my dad. "You're cooking all the time, and it's hot."

"I'm sure it's fine," my father said. Then he looked at me warily. "You're going to ask some experts, aren't you?" he asked.

"Tell Mom and Dad that's not a good idea," said Myriam Shaw Ojeda, an assistant professor of pharmacy practice and science at Ohio State University's College of Pharmacy. Storing medication near a heat source may reduce its effectiveness, she explained.

My parents aren't the only people who assume that one safekeeping spot is as good as another. Less than a quarter of the participants in a 2021 study done by the University of Minnesota were storing their medications appropriately. And improper storage is just one of the many mistakes that people make.

Here, pharmacists share their best tips for properly filling, storing and discarding prescription drugs.

TAKE YOUR MEDS OUT OF THE BATHROOM CABINET.

Just as storing pills near a heatgenerating kitchen appliance can reduce their effectiveness, keeping them in a bathroom cabinet is also a bad idea, says Mary Bridgeman, a clinical professor at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University. The term medicine cabinet is a total misnomer, she says.

Steam from your bathroom can erode the coatings on medications, and heat can break down the active ingredients, says Eric MacLaughlin, the chair of the pharmacy practice department at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

The kitchen can be a good spot, he says, as long as you're storing your medication in a cool, dry place that's away from temperature fluctuations. MacLaughlin also warns that medications should be stowed away from children and pets.