What are distressed drugs?

Distressed drugs refer to medications that have been subjected to conditions affecting their quality or efficacy. This can encompass a range of scenarios, such as exposure to inappropriate temperatures, humidity, or contamination, which may compromise the drug's intended effects or safety for patients.

Understanding distressed drugs is crucial in pharmacy practice because administering or dispensing these medications can pose significant risks to patient health. Ensuring that drugs maintain their integrity throughout their shelf life is a critical aspect of pharmaceutical care and regulation.

The other options describe situations that do not fully capture the broader definition of distressed drugs. For instance, while lost or stolen drugs are certainly a concern for inventory management and security, this does not refer to deterioration in quality. Expired or nearing expiration drugs are a separate category of concern related to potency, but they do not encompass drugs that have been subject to compromised storage conditions. Lastly, drugs that are not approved for sale pertain to regulatory issues rather than quality integrity. Each of these scenarios relates to pharmaceutical practice, but they do not align specifically with the definition of distressed drugs.