Special medicine needs require special information

Patients with special medicine needs taking greater responsibility for their health is a topic raised in the April edition of Australian Prescriber.

When you buy a pre-packaged medicine, your doctor and pharmacist can give you a Consumer Medicine Information leaflet or a “CMI”.

However, there is no CMI available for compounded medicines, community pharmacist Mark Feldschuh writes in Australian Prescriber.

If your pharmacist is “tailor making”, or compounding, your medicine, be sure to ask for information about how to use and store it, to make best use of the medicine and minimise the possibilities of side effects and interactions.

“It’s very important for doctors and pharmacists to advise you on the correct use, storage, expiry date and any possible adverse effects and interactions of a compounded medicine,” Mr Feldschuh said. “It might be a good idea to ask for written information.”

There are many reasons that a medicine is compounded. For example, a medicine may no longer be produced commercially or a patient may need a different way of taking the medicine, such as in liquid form instead of a tablet. Other reasons include a medicine being temporarily unavailable, or if a patient needs it in a different dose or concentration.

A medicine can be made for you on the spot in a pharmacy. In Australia, all pharmacists are taught how to compound medicines and all pharmacies must be able to provide a basic compounding service. Some pharmacies now specialise in compounding.

National Prescribing Service Limited (NPS) encourages people taking medicines of any kind, including compounded medicines, to talk to their doctor or pharmacist about use, and also to let them know if other medicines are being taken. This is to minimise the risk of adverse reactions.