For many people, the idea of a “compounding” pharmacy is a rather unheard of concept. In reality, ALL pharmacies used to be “compounding” pharmacies. In this article, we’re going to discuss what makes them different from your typical CVS or Walgreens and why you might want to consider them for your next medication purchase. A medication is considered “compounded” when it is prepared by a highly skilled, licensed pharmacist based on a specific prescription given by a doctor for a particular patient.
This isn’t a new or novel idea. For many years in the past, all medications was essentially “made to order” by a pharmacist based on a “recipe” given him by a doctor. The doctor seeing the patient understood the condition and the medications (and synergy of medications) that would be most beneficial to his patient. Today, most medications are mass-produced by huge pharmaceutical companies. These companies have the advantage of being able to produce large quantities of medication that is carefully and precisely quality-controlled. They are trying to treat a broad spectrum of people quickly and efficiently. However, this approach may not work for every patient…and in compounded medications, the individual’s personal health situation is the key to all medication prescribed -; and then created.
When might a doctor prescribe a compounded medication? Well, there are more scenarios than you might think for this to occur. In one instance, the production of a medication may have been discontinued by a large pharmaceutical company. If the medication is one that a patient will need long-term, a compounding pharmacist might purchase a large quantity of the medication’s components and prepare the medication by hand.
In another situation, a compounding pharmacist might take several medications and combine them into one dose This might induce a non-compliant patient into taking one dose that has all of his needed medication. This might also be the case where a patient needs or wants to take multiple vitamin supplements, but dreads the thought of taking a dozen pills ever day.
In another common scenario, some patients cannot tolerate the side-effects that come with certain medications. For these patients, a compounding pharmacist can prepare a compound that works to eliminate or reduce the unwanted side-effect.
