Friday , March 29 2024

TOPICAL PAIN RELIEF COMPOUNDS: TARGETED TREATMENT – RAPID RECOVERY

TOPICAL PAIN RELIEF COMPOUNDS: TARGETED TREATMENT – RAPID RECOVERYPharmacy compounding is the art and science of preparing personalized medications for patients. Compounded medications are “made from scratch” – individual ingredients are mixed together in the exact strength and dosage form required by the patient. This method allows the compounding pharmacist to work with the patient and the prescriber to customize a medication to meet the patient’s specific needs.
At one time, nearly all prescriptions were compounded. With the advent of mass drug manufacturing in the 1950s and 1960s, compounding rapidly declined. The pharmacist’s role as a preparer of medications quickly changed to that of a dispenser of manufactured dosage forms, and most pharmacists no longer were trained to compound medications. However, the “one-size-fits-all” nature of many mass-produced medications meant that some patients’ needs were not being met.
There is perhaps no other specialty that appreciates the problem-solving abilities of compounding more than that of pain management. By the time many chronic pain patients are seen by a pain management physician, they are unable to work due to excruciating pain, are depressed from being in constant pain and are treated like addicts by those who are unfamiliar with chronic pain conditions and its treatment. Often times, the pain management specialist is the chronic pain patient’s last hope for pain relief. By this time, they have tried multiple medications offering little relief. This is when the pain management physician must think outside of the box.
Because patients vary in size, symptoms and pain tolerance, commercially available medications often do not provide appropriate dosage strength for the adequate relief of pain. Through compounding, however, a physician and pharmacist can customize a pain relief formula to meet the patient’s specific needs. Development of topical gels/creams capable of supporting multiple classes of medications while enhancing penetration and subsequent delivery of drug entities across the skin barrier allow for a noninvasive, convenient and relatively adverse event free mechanism for accomplishing this tailored care. In fact, some doctors have found that multi-ingredient compounded topical pain relief formulations provide relief more quickly than their commercially prepared single-entity counterparts.
Delivery systems are specially designed to carry medications through the skin directly to the site of the patient’s pain. Topical delivery has many advantages over traditional oral medications, including:
. Non-addictive
. Direct delivery to the site of the pain
. Minimal absorption into the bloodstream
. Fewer side effects, if any at all
. Reduced possibility of adverse drug interactions
. Reduced organ toxicity
. Decreased inflammation
. Measurable and identifiable pain relief
. Greater effectiveness and results
Another great advantage of compound formulations is that they can be easily adjusted according to the patient’s changing medical needs.
Compounded topical analgesics are extremely effective in relieving the pain that accompanies so many life-limiting and life-threatening diseases. In fact, some doctors believe that in order to help their patients heal, rather than just treat symptoms which provides the illusion of health, the prescribing of a compounded topical pain relief formulation is warranted.
Custom Meds Compounding Pharamcy
352-341-1212
www.custommeds.com

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