Welcome to Brigent Specialty Pharmacy
Title Image

Rheumatology

Woman-with-knee-pain
Digital-illustration-of-human-skeleton

At Brigent Specialty Pharmacy, we create medication for patients diagnosed with a rheumatology condition.

What is Rheumatology?

Rheumatology is a subspecialty of internal medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal diseases and disorders which affect the joints, muscles, and ligaments.

Musculoskeletal disorders may affect the:

  • Joints (osteoarthritis, psoriatic arthritis, gout, rheumatoid arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis)
  • Spine (back and neck pain)
  • Muscles (sarcopenia)
  • Bones (osteoporosis, fragility fractures, and traumatic fractures)
Doctor-pointing-to-model-of-knee

Common Rheumatological Conditions

Brigent Specialty Pharmacy experts are able to fill prescriptions for the following rheumatological conditions:

  • Aortitis
  • Autoinflammatory diseases
  • Churg-Strauss syndrome
  • Dermatomyositis
  • Gout
  • Lupus
  • Mixed connective tissue disease
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Periaortitis
  • Polymyositis
  • Pseudogout
  • Psoriatic arthritis

Other conditions include ankylosing spondylitis, antiphospholipid syndrome, axial spondyloarthritis, Behcet’s disease, central nervous system (CNS) vasculitis, connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease, cryoglobulinemia, cryoglobulinemic vasculitis, eosinophilic fasciitis, giant cell arteritis, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, Henoch-Schonlein purpura, IgG4-related disease, inclusion body myositis, inflammatory myopathies, juvenile dermatomyositis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, leukocytoclastic vasculitis, microscopic polyangiitis, polyarteritis nodosa, and polymyalgia rheumatica,

Patients diagnosed with the following rheumatological conditions may also need personalized medication:

  • Raynaud’s disease
  • Relapsing polychondritis
  • Retroperitoneal fibrosis
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Rheumatoid vasculitis
  • Sarcoidosis
  • Scleroderma
  • Seronegative inflammatory arthritis
  • Sjogren’s syndrome
  • Spinal stenosis
  • Takayasu’s arteritis
  • Urticarial vasculitis
  • Vasculitis

Symptoms of MSDs

Patients suffering from a musculoskeletal disorder may experience:

  • Persistent stiffness, weakness, and pain
  • Decreased range of motion that limits mobility, dexterity, and functional abilities
  • Noises in the joints
  • Joint deformity
  • Inflammation
  • Redness, swelling, and warmth in the problem area

Causes of Musculoskeletal Disorders

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) may be caused by:

  • Ergonomic factors (such as poor workstation design)
  • Task repetition that causes daily wear and tear
  • Exertion with force
  • Poor posture (this can impose excessive force on the joints and overload the muscles and tendons)
  • Inadequate rest and recovery (due to infrequent breaks at work, working under pressure, poor job design, high workload, lack of support from colleagues and supervisors, and job insecurity)

An individual’s risk of developing an MSD is higher due to the following factors:

  • Old age
  • Being female
  • Smoking
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Obesity

Treating Rheumatological Conditions With Medication

Patients diagnosed with a rheumatological condition may need to take prescription medication to treat their symptoms and address the underlying cause. Brigent Specialty Pharmacy works with physicians to create safe and effective medications for a variety of conditions.

Compound Medication For Rheumatological Conditions

Patients diagnosed with a condition affecting their musculoskeletal system may need a compound medication, which is simply a drug that is specifically mixed and prepared for the patient, based on a doctor’s prescription. To create a compound medication, a pharmacist mixes one or more active ingredients, each at a specified amount.

The ability to customize medications offers unique benefits to patients. For one, medication can be made to fit the patient’s unique needs, whether that’s making the medication easier to take or more convenient to use.

Unlike other medications, which are made by pharmaceutical companies, compounded medications aren’t commercially available. Compounded medication is made specifically for each patient at the pharmacy, based on their doctor’s prescription.

We encourage patients and physicians to reach out to our team to learn more about our approach to compounding medication for rheumatological conditions.