Latest news with #oral immunotherapy
Medscape
6 days ago
- Health
- Medscape
Can Parent-Administered Low-Dose Peanut OIT Treat Allergy?
TOPLINE: A low-dose peanut oral immunotherapy (OIT) protocol using parent-measured dosing can desensitize children aged 1-4 years with peanut allergy. The approach appears to be acceptably safe and may yield greater improvements in quality of life than peanut avoidance, researchers reported. METHODOLOGY: Investigators conducted a randomized trial that included 54 children with confirmed or highly probable peanut allergy at a tertiary pediatric hospital in Western Australia to compare peanut OIT with peanut avoidance. Participants in the peanut OIT group received 1-360 mg of peanut protein in the form of defatted peanut flour sold as powdered peanut butter. At 12 months, researchers assessed how many participants in the OIT and avoidance groups could tolerate > 600 mg peanut protein during an oral food challenge, the study's primary outcome. Children's quality of life and parental burden were also assessed using questionnaires at weeks 12 and 24 and at the end of the study. TAKEAWAY: Overall, 74% of participants in the peanut OIT group vs 11% in the avoidance group achieved the primary outcome (odds ratio, 22.9; P < .001). On the quality-of-life questionnaires, the peanut OIT group had significantly lower scores (indicating better quality of life) across domains like emotional impact, food-related anxiety, and social and dietary limitations. A total of 79 treatment-related adverse events were reported for 21 participants in the peanut OIT group, with a median of two events per participant. Three of the adverse events that occurred at home were treated with adrenaline. Most treatment-related adverse events were grade 1 or 2, 11% were grade 3, and one was grade 4. IN PRACTICE: 'A pragmatic protocol for pOIT [peanut OIT] relying on parent-measured doses of a commercially available food product is feasible, acceptable to parents, and results in similarly low rates of adverse events as other reported trials of pOIT in this age group,' the authors of the study wrote. SOURCE: Michael O'Sullivan, MBBS, with the University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, was the corresponding author of the study, which was published online on August 4 in Clinical & Experimental Allergy. LIMITATIONS: This study had an open-label design and no placebo control. In other contexts, families may be less willing or able to adhere to an OIT regimen, the researchers noted. DISCLOSURES: This study was supported by the Department of Health, Government of Western Australia. O'Sullivan is a board director and the current president of the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
Medscape
10-07-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Early Oral Immunotherapy Eases Parent Food Allergy Anxiety
TOPLINE: Preschool oral immunotherapy (OIT) was associated with a significant reduction in food allergy-specific anxiety and improvement in quality of life among parents of preschool-aged children. METHODOLOGY: Researchers conducted a retrospective analysis to assess how parental food allergy-specific anxiety changed over time during OIT in preschool-aged children. The analysis included 788 preschool-aged children (median age, 27 months; 62% boys) receiving OIT at Canadian allergy clinics between 2021 and 2025. They administered the 17-item Food Allergy Quality of Life-Parental Burden (FAQL-PB) questionnaire and the 28-item Impairment Measure for Parental Food Allergy-Associated Anxiety and Coping Tool (IMPAACT) at four timepoints — baseline, end of the OIT build-up phase, and 6 and 12 months after build-up — to evaluate parental quality of life and anxiety. TAKEAWAY: Preschool OIT significantly reduced parental food allergy-specific anxiety (regression weight = -18.13; P < .001), with the total IMPAACT score decreasing from a mean of 70.69 at baseline to 57.36 at the end of the build-up phase. The parental burden also declined sharply, with FAQL-PB scores dropping from a mean of 27.35 at baseline to 22.16 after build-up (P < .001). A shorter build-up duration was associated with greater improvements in parental burden scores between baseline and the end of build-up (P = .001). Child's age, partial vs complete OIT, time to complete build-up, and reactions during maintenance moderated the relationship between time and some of the outcome variables. IN PRACTICE: 'It is possible that by intervening earlier in life, allergists may help prevent the development of excessive anxiety by ensuring maladaptive beliefs and behaviours do not become entrenched over time,' the authors wrote. SOURCE: Lianne Soller, PhD, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was the corresponding author of the study, which was published online on July 4 in Clinical and Experimental Allergy. LIMITATIONS: The study was limited by the absence of child-reported quality-of-life data, lack of a control group, possible selection bias toward participants experiencing greater anxiety or lower quality of life, and missing follow-up data likely caused by dropouts among children who experienced more reactions or parents with greater treatment-related anxiety. DISCLOSURES: Some authors reported serving on advisory boards, receiving honoraria or research funding, contributing to guideline development, chairing educational committees, or holding leadership positions in professional societies and various institutions and pharmaceutical companies. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
