A chapter in the 1992 edition of "The Hive and the Honey Bee" 
titled "Other Bee Products" by Justin Schmidt and Steve Buchmann 
provides a good summary and perspective on bee venom in human and 
veterinary medicine (as of 1992).  Some points made:

1) Bee venom is a complex mix of active ingredients with different 
pharmacological but strong effects.
2) Most salient among documented activities on mammals are 
anti-inflammatory and cortisol activating effects.
3) Testimonials are useful indicators of possible positive effects, 
good controlled studies are sparse, but as a whole suggest possible 
uses.
4) Dismissing possibly useful applications based on current evidence 
may be premature (as of 1992).

A further comment: if one looks in detail at the studies backing FDA 
approval of a lot of current pharmaceuticals, the improvement in 
outcomes in the treated group is fairly marginal compared to controls- 
effects that would be considered fairly biologically insignificant in 
other fields.  The justification for permitting the use of such 
marginally effective compounds is the high value of human health and 
life.  As a doctor friend told me recently: "For the person for which a 
medication works well, their improvement is not the average result of 
the study, but 100%".  And as a doctor who oversees ambulance responses 
in an area of rural Colorado recently responded to someone requesting 
black and white answers as to how he makes decisions on trauma patient 
care and where ambulances take them: "Medicine is not black and white, 
but rather gray".
 

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