Customized Treatment Options

Occasionally, available manufactured drugs are not the best choice for your patient.   In those times you may need to customize a prescription to meet the particular needs of a patient.   Examples of patients for whom physicians prescribe compounded medications include:

• The young patient who will not take the "bad"-tasting medicine or who needs a child-sized dosage of a medicine that is manufactured in adult doses.
• The patient who is allergic to the dye or other inactive ingredients in manufactured medicines.  
• The patient who the physician believes may respond better to bio-identical hormones than the manufactured forms of hormonal drugs.

The advantage of a compounded prescription is the same as every treatment alternative you have at hand. When treating your patients you search for the best way to treat their healthcare problems. Compounded medication is one possible answer.   It is one additional tool you have available to you.  

Many pharmacies will provide some compounding. Most will perform basic compounding - for example, combining two ointments into one preparation. The more complicated and time-consuming the procedure, the more likely it is to be performed only in specialized pharmacies.

Often, the equipment needed for complicated or sensitive compounding is expensive. For example, if the resulting compounded preparation must be sterile, a special air-filtering system will probably be required. In the case of higher-level sterile products, an entire room designed to meet special requirements as a "clean room" will be necessary.

When you prescribe a compounded medication, your patient will need to select a compounding pharmacy.   PCAB recommends the patient choose a pharmacy whose scope of compounding [PDF file] includes the type medication prescribed and that has earned the designation "PCAB Accredited™ compounding pharmacy."   Look for the PCAB Seal.