terms - desensitization

[Guest guest]

I think the terminology surrounding desensitization might need to be

clarified to help us communicate about this.

Desensitized to aspirin does NOT imply any general symptom relief.

It only means that you can TAKE aspirin without having a reaction to

it.

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Allergy shots are essentially a slow desensitization process to

whatever particular allergen you are being desensitized to.

The symptom relief that comes from aspirin desensitization may not

occur in everyone. Thus, people can get desensitized to aspirin and

be able to take it every day but it may not improve their symptoms of

Samters.

For some people who need to take aspirin for other reasons, there may

be medical value to being desensitized even if it does not improve

one's Samters symptoms entirely.

It seems there may be some people who can NOT be desensitized to

aspirin for whatever reason, meaning when they take aspirin they

still have a reaction to it, even though they have gone through the

desensitization procedure!

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The reasons that people can be desensitized to aspirin in Samters but

not experience symptom relief are really unclear, and this is part of

what they have been studying at Scripps for the last 30 years. For

that matter I think it's still not clear why many people who are

desensed GET symptom improvement!

At Scripps they claim 87 percent of their desensitization subjects

experience at least SOME symptom relief, allowing for a reduction in

steroid use.

I am pretty sure it's clear that people who stop taking aspirin for

any period of time generally are no longer desensitized, i.e., they

will react to aspirin upon taking it.

However, people may still experience, for a period of time, symptom

relief.

In my case the desensitization process stabilized me in such a way

that I have been able to be off aspirin for almost six years without

full return of my original symptoms before my original

desensitization. I do not believe I can take aspirin without

reaction, so I am no longer desensitized.

I hope this makes sense ...

Lori