We misrepresented on the cover of the issue of 2 August the paper by Michael J Radcliffe and colleagues (Enzyme potentiated desensitisation in treatment of seasonal allergic rhinitis: double blind randomised controlled study. BMJ 2003;327: 251-4 ). Our heading suggested that desensitisation (of any type) for allergies does not work, whereas the paper by Radcliffe and colleagues referred specifically to enzyme potentiated desensitisation. Traditional desensitisation does in fact work for certain indications (for example, bee and wasp venom anaphylaxis; severe simple, grass pollen hay fever; and severe cat allergy). Unfortunately, we repeated our error in the first sentence of the summary in “This Week in the BMJ.”