ITC Pharmacy understands that chronic and acute pain can be detrimental to your day-to-day living. That’s why our experienced compounding pharmacists go to great lengths to ensure patients receive the best pharmaceutical care. Optimal treatment may involve the use of medications that possess pain-relieving properties, including some antidepressants, anticonvulsants, antiarrhythmics, anesthetics, antiviral agents, and NMDA antagonists. By combining various agents which utilize different mechanisms to alter the sensation of pain, practitioners have had great success in treating chronic pain.
Transdermal creams and gels can be formulated to provide high local concentrations at the site of application (e.g., NSAIDs for joint pain), for trigger point application (e.g., combinations of medications for neuropathic pain), or in a base that will allow systemic absorption. Studies suggest that there are no great restrictions on the type of drug that can be incorporated into a properly compounded transdermal gel. When medications are administered transdermally, they are not absorbed through the gastrointestinal system and do not undergo first-pass hepatic metabolism; therefore, side effects associated with oral administration can often be avoided.