Sublingual Immunotherapy Treatment Shows Potential For Bee Stings

Posted on March 21, 2008

WebMD reports that a new research study has found that placing drops of honeybee venom under the tongue can significantly reduce reactions in people allergic to bee stings. This procedure is known as sublingual immunotherapy. Partipants in the study were gradually given larger doses of bee venom over a six week period.

The participants were randomly assigned to receive either sublingual immunotherapy in the form of honeybee venom drops placed under the tongue, or placebo drops.
Patients in the immunotherapy group got escalating doses of honeybee venom for six weeks, followed by a maintenance dose, given three times a week for six months.
"You hold the drop under the tongue for about one or two minutes, then swallow," Passalacqua says.

After being gradually subjected to greater quantities of the bee venom for six weeks it was time for the participants to be stung by a real honeybee. The reactions to the stings were much smaller than they would have been without the sublingual immunotherapy.

Then came the bee sting challenge. "We put insects in a jar and then put the jar on the patient's forearm" and looked to see what happened, he says.
It worked. The median diameter of the sting wheals in patients given sublingual immunotherapy dropped from about 8 to 3 inches. Looked at another way, wheal diameter was reduced by more than 50% in more than half of them.
"This was a very apparent and very significant reduction in the size of the reaction to the sting," Passalacqua says.
In contrast, there was no change in wheal diameter in the placebo group, and one person broke out in hives.

The tongue drop treatments next will go through a round of testing on people who have very severe entire body reactions to bee stings. But there is no reason to wait for treatment if you have a bee allergy because shots are already available. Allergist Clifford Bassett, MD told WMD that venom shots are 95% effective "in reducing the risk of systemic reactions in people with honeybee sting allergies." Shots can be inconvenient but it is much better to play it safe - get your shot and reduce the risk of having a severe reaction to a bee sting.

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