subject: People Suffering With Chronic Pain Turn To Compounding Pharmacies For Relief [print this page] Specialty pharmacies are the old made new again. Before the advent of mass-produced drugs, all medicines were made to order by qualified professionals. However, since Big Pharma took over, most pharmacists have become little more than pill-counters and only those druggists who operate specialty pharmacies now tailor-make medications and treatments for patients.
One of the primary reasons for the accelerated growth of these shops is pain management. Although there are literally hundreds of over-the-counter analgesics to ease temporary pain like pulled muscles and headaches, there aren't many pills or potions that can effectively deal with the chronic pain of long-term illnesses. Both OTC and prescriptions that treat ailments like migraine headaches, fibromyalgia and arthritis usually have undesirable side effects, frequently a result of the fillers, additives and other agents that may trigger allergies and other adverse reactions.
Medicines sold at regular pharmacies and at the grocery store are manufactured for the "average" patient, employing a one-size-fits-all formula. A small number of us conform to the specifications set by the manufacturing company, so that our particular set of symptoms or needs is rarely fully met by these meds. On the other hand, compounding pharmacies and our prescribing doctors know about our individual needs and take such factors as age, weight, gender, allergies and other variables into consideration.
Additionally, many people, especially the very young and the elderly, are not able to swallow capsules or pills and need alternative methods to deliver pain management medicines. Specialty pharmacists can customize them for all individual needs, putting them into formulations of ointments, foams, suppositories, patches and even, for the youngsters, lollipops. Because each patient is treated as an individual, compounding pharmacies are acutely conscious of potential negative effects of drug interaction and all the vagaries of both the prescription ingredients and the individuals to whom they're prescribed.
Although pain management may seem a little more costly when using a compounding pharmacy, the minor difference in price is more than worthwhile, considering how much more effective and less likely to be dangerous these custom-made prescriptions are than the mass-produced meds found at the local corner drug store or supermarket. As more and more people are learning the dangers of ingesting whatever the big companies manufacture without question, compounding pharmacies are growing in popularity every day, as well they should. Persistent pain is no joke, and the right pharmacist can provide solutions that can go a long way toward enhancing the quality of life for people suffering painful conditions.
