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Immunological and Clinical Aspects of Allergy pp 297–310Cite as

Hyposensitization Therapy

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Abstract

Patients with hay fever and asthma have been treated with injections of allergen extract for almost 70 years. However there is still no satisfactory method for standardizing the extracts used. The early reports of benefit were based on the anecdotal impressions of patient and physician; it was 43 years after the original descriptions1, 2 that the first placebo controlled trial was published3. The initial work was founded on unsound theory and we still do not fully understand the changes in the immune system brought about by hyposensitization. It is not surprising that immunotherapy remains a controversial subject and its use varies greatly in different parts of the world.

‘I do not want to boast, but I think I am quite done with the accursed thing for this year. There can be no sort of doubt, seeing the kind of season it has been, that I should have suffered, and that severely, if I had not had these inoculations.’

Patient with hay fever, 1911

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  1. J. F. Price
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Guy’s Hospital Medical School, London, UK

    M. H. Lessof (Professor of Medicine) (Professor of Medicine)

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Price, J.F. (1981). Hyposensitization Therapy. In: Lessof, M.H. (eds) Immunological and Clinical Aspects of Allergy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-6217-3_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-6217-3_8

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