Refrigerating medications to slow degradation and extend shelf-life

[neurotic3]

Hi,

[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica]From what I've read I think that medicines shelf life is going to be quite longer if they are stored in the refrigerator (specially in those hot summer days with high temps).
However, often there's a problem with my refrigerator that makes it disconnect 3-5 times a year and, if unnoticed, it may stay disconnected for a week or so.
My question is:

What would be worse:

1) Leaving your medications at room temperature all year round (taking into account that in the summer it's VERY hot).

2) Having your medications all year round in your refrigerator but bearing in mind that they will suffer the temperature change that stems from refrigerator failure 3-5 times a year.
?

What would be worse? The high temperatures of the summer or the temperature abrupt changes that stem from refrigerator disconnecting?

I know that these temperature changes are a big problem when it comes to things like food (with a high % of water content), specially when you freeze them because that change of state is quite damaging, however, taking into account that medicines don't generally contain water and hence there's no change of state at 0ºC there should be no problem from these temp changes, don't you think¿?

Thank you.[/FONT]

 

[neurotic3]

bump!!!

 

[Skye]

it would depend on the drugs in question. if its steroids your talking about the fridge is a bad place to keep them, mosture is more likely to degrade the products then the tempature. That of course is a broad statement, you need to be more specific on what your storing. Usually storing things in a cool dark and dry place is the safest bet.

 

[neurotic3]

Moisture can't damage something that's vacuum sealed, 'cause it's hermetic. So that's not what we should evaluate. We know for a fact that most medications keep up better in the fridge, what I'd like to know would be whether freezing-defreezing several times is more damaging than having it at room temp.

 

[wastedwhiteboy2]

I thought a fridge worked similar to an air conditioner and pulled the humidity out of the air.
sorry dont have an answer about the freezing and unthawing. my guess would be freezing and thawing would be better.