Chrysotherapy

Chrysotherapy, also called aurotherapy, is the medical use of gold compounds to treat disease, most notably rheumatoid arthritis. Investigation of gold medical applications began at the end of the nineteenth century, when gold cyanide was found to be effective against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in laboratory tests, and research into its anti-inflammatory potential intensified in the 1930s, establishing rheumatoid arthritis as its primary therapeutic use; it was later applied to psoriatic arthritis and some lupus-related skin conditions as well. Use of gold compounds has decreased sharply since the 1980s because of numerous side effects, including chrysiasis, a bluish-grey skin discoloration from long-term gold saturation, alongside demanding monitoring requirements, limited efficacy and a very slow onset of action, and the treatment has been largely superseded by newer drugs such as methotrexate.