Pain Management
Patients trying to relief pain through pain management, whether it is caused by trauma, arthritis, or neuropathy, are finding it difficult to achieve. If physicians and pharmacists could experience the depression, anxiety, frustration, and anger the patients experience form unrelieved chronic pain and the resentment the patient feels when treated for what most physicians consider to be a symptom rather than a chronic disease, perhaps they could better understand the patients’ urgencies, needs, and resentment at being treated as second-class citizens.
Lack of education: In many colleges and universities, pain is considered an “orphan” subject, and the major specialties have not yet expanded their curricula to include courses in PAIN MANAGEMENT. Without this education, students cannot gain the experience they need to successfully treat patients with chronic pain.
Fear of addiction: This is exaggerated in patients who have never been substance abusers. The risk of addiction in this population is estimated to be approximately 1% to 3%. Most patients comply with their physician’s instructions. Those patients who are noncompliant are more prone to addiction.
PAIN: The One Thing We Can Live Without
Almost everyone experiences pain sometime, but no one experiences it in quite the same way. For this reason, pain management can be especially challenging, as what works for one may not work or be convenient for all. Fortunately, doctors and compounding pharmacists can work together with patients to devise a convenient approach that can be adjusted to meet the changing needs of each patient. Compounding pharmacists can help solve some common problems with PAIN MANAGEMENT by providing a changing array of dosage forms to fit the patient’s changing needs and by providing a greater quantity of drug per dose.
Many commonly prescribed pain relief medications help the symptoms associated with chronic conditions such as arthritis, but they can also result in stomach irritation and other unwanted side effects. For migraine sufferers, pain management can be maintained by administering drugs through nasal sprays or flavored troches or lozenges. These dosage forms bypass the gastrointestinal tract, and may provide optimal results with less GI irritation. Struggling through chronic pain problems like arthritis, fibromyalgia, migraine headaches and nerve and muscle pain does not have to be a daily activity. There’s a better solution” pharmacy compounding, a customized option for pain management.
Because patients vary in size, symptoms and pain tolerance, commercially available medications often do not provide appropriate dosage strength. Through compounding, a physician and pharmacist can customize a medication to the exact amount needed by the patient. Pain can be debilitating, whether it’s acute muscle or nerve pain resulting from an accident, or a chronic condition such as arthritis or fibromyalgia. Pharmacy compounding is effective in providing relief with potentially fewer side effects and less overall medication, thus making pain management possible.
