Compounding
What is Compounding and why use it?
Compounding is the art of preparing medications that are customized to meet the need of each individual patient. This is especially important for those patients who are unable to take commercially available medications due to difficulty swallowing pills, allergies to dyes and/or fillers, or poor medication response.
There are numerous reasons for pharmacists to compound medications. One of the most important issues today deals with patient compliance. It does not matter how effective a medication is if a patient cannot take it. The reasons for "non-compliance" can vary from allergies to dyes and fillers, patients' sensitivity to the components of commercially available medications (e.g., GI upset, nausea), an unpalatable taste, or difficulty swallowing oral pills.
