Histamine treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Histamine was administered intravenously or by iontophoresis to 19 patients with clearly established diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. In each of the three classifications of the disease (stationary, progressive, acute), no significant difference in improvement between treated and control groups was observed. (Controls were recorded cases in which treatment was identical except for histamine therapy.)In four of seven cases of progressive disease further deterioration occurred despite histamine therapy. Of the other three patients one died a year later and another returned to hospital in three months with severe symptoms which were not relieved on further histamine treatment. In two patients with remittent disease new symptoms (presumably caused by new lesions of the central nervous system) developed while histamine therapy was in progress. In cases of stationary disease histamine treatment was of no benefit. Reports are given of six typical cases in which histamine treatment was used.