A Facebook post shared more than 9,500 times claims that Benadryl, a commercial brand of Diphenhydramine, an antihistamine used to relieve the symptoms of allergies, was used to treat a patient who was bitten by a rattlesnake. It seems that some users interpret that Benadryl is therefore a recommended treatment for a rattlesnake bite. This is false.
The Facebook post (here) is from 2019, but from March 15 it will still be shared. It tells how a person was allegedly treated in an emergency room after being bitten by a rattlesnake. “The first thing the emergency room did was give him Benadryl,” the report said. “The immediate threat is swelling and death of tissue treated with the Benadryl.”
Some users seem to interpret that Benadryl is a recommended treatment for snake bites. Comments include: “Good information! Another remedy for snake bites is to make a paste of baking soda and water and apply! It saved my life after a copper head bit me twice! Other users say that Benadryl can be used to ‘keep the swelling’.
Rais Vohra, medical director of the Fresno-Madera Division in California (here), emailed Reuters that “Antihistamines such as diphenhydramine are useful for swelling associated with allergic reactions, not poison-related emergencies like a rattlesnake bite.” “
In a 2019 article from the Snakebite Foundation here, Nick Brandehoff, a medical toxicologist, wrote that Benadryl is not effective in treating snake environments.
‘Pitviper envenomas in the US cause local tissue injury due to direct poisoning. “Cell death causes swelling and pain due to the release of intracellular contents when the cell dies,” Brandehoff said. ‘Furthermore, poison causes blood vessels to’ leak ‘, causing further swelling, redness and pain as fluid leaves our blood vessels and enters the tissue. Benadryl does nothing to deny these consequences. ”
Brandehoff wrote that in the ‘very rare’ case of an allergic reaction to a snakebite, Benadryl may play a role in treatment, but that epinephrine is the most important medication (here).
Jeffrey Suchard, a physician at UCI Health Medicine and Medical Toxicologist (here), emailed Reuters that it is possible, though quite unlikely, to have allergic reactions to rattlesnake anomaly.
According to Suchard, the attending physician mentioned in the report could have ‘thought that the patient had been injected into the throat by an allergic reaction’, and therefore recommended the diphenhydramine. However, the poor swelling was almost certainly of direct poisoning effect, and Benadryl (diphenhydramine) was unlikely to affect the swelling. ‘
Benadryl could also be used as a ‘pre-treatment before the toxin therapy’, as allergies to toxins can occur, ‘Suchard explained. But it is not a common practice, as “the snake venom against most in the United States currently has a low incidence of allergic reactions.”
In case of a rattlesnake bite, experts recommend going to a medical facility as soon as possible (here, here).
“The best course of action is to get the patient to an emergency room for antivenein and other treatments as soon as possible,” Vohra told Reuters.
VERDICT
Missing context. Antihistamines, such as Benadryl, are not the recommended treatment for snake bites. If someone is bitten, the person should seek medical attention as soon as possible.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.