What are the Benefits of Compounding?
Compounding allows a medication to be personalized for an individual patient. The ability to create these personalized medications allows compounding pharmacists to help patients with a wide variety of needs.
Have you ever wished your child’s medicine tasted better, so they would accept it without a fuss? Or struggled to cut a prescription tablet in half because the pill wasn’t manufactured in the strength you required? Perhaps an ill loved one could have benefited from having multiple medications combined into a single dose. Compounding pharmacists provide solutions to all these problems, and more.
Compounding Makes Medication Allergy-Friendly
A patient may be allergic to or intolerant of an ingredient commonly found in the commercially manufactured form of a medication. A compounding pharmacist can create a personalized medication, formulated to give the patient the treatment they need while leaving out the problematic ingredient.
Compounding Makes Medication Easier to Use
Some medications have a very unpleasant flavor, which makes the patient less likely to take it as directed. A compounding pharmacist can flavor many medications to make it more palatable without compromising the medication’s effectiveness.
A patient may need their medication in a different dosage form. For instance, patients who have difficulty swallowing a pill may find it easier to take their medication in a pleasantly flavored liquid form. Some medications can be compounded in a topical form that allows the medicine to be absorbed into the bloodstream through the skin.
Compounding Makes Medication for Children and the Elderly Safe
Children and the elderly are often the types of patients who benefit most from compounding. A compounding pharmacist can work directly with the physician and the patient to select a flavoring agent, which provides both an appropriate match for the medication’s properties and the patient’s taste preferences.
Compounding is a Safe and Trusted Alternative
Compounding has been part of healthcare since the origins of pharmacy, and is widely used today in all areas of the industry. The Food and Drug Administration has stated that compounded prescriptions are both ethical and legal as long as they are prescribed by a licensed practitioner for a specific patient and compounded by a licensed pharmacy.