--- title: Vitiligo: Existing Drug Brought Pigment Back to Patient description: Scientists have discovered an existing drug can restore pigment into the skin of people with vitiligo. canonical: https://time.com/3938992/drug-vitiligo/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-27T17:09:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:36:27.610Z article:section: Health og:title: This Drug Brought Pigment Back for Woman With Vitiligo og:description: A case study shows promise og:url: https://time.com/3938992/drug-vitiligo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt26b678d4c094a223/698858c58e0601a40c461314/skin-pigmentation-arthritis.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: skin pigmentation arthritis og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Drug Brought Pigment Back for Woman With Vitiligo twitter:description: A case study shows promise twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt26b678d4c094a223/698858c58e0601a40c461314/skin-pigmentation-arthritis.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Drug Brought Pigment Back for Woman With Vitiligo ## Video: Science Cop: How Anti-Vaxxers Put Everyone at Risk [Watch (HLS stream): Science Cop: How Anti-Vaxxers Put Everyone at Risk](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ai82XWJ8.m3u8) (2:06)  _Published 2014-09-24. TIME's Science Cop Jeffrey Kulger takes on the misinformation coming from opponents of childhood vaccinations_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jun 27, 2015 5:09 PM UTC  Dr. Brett King/Yale by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jun 27, 2015 5:09 PM UTC Scientists have discovered an existing drug may be able to restore pigment into the skin of people with vitiligo. Vitiligo is a disorder that causes the skin to lose its pigment, and few treatments are consistently effective. The late singer Michael Jackson is a well-known person who had the disorder. In the study, which was recently [published](http://archderm.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2323633) in the journal _JAMA Dermatology,_ researchers gave a 53-year-old patient with vitiligo who had white spots covering her face, hands and body a drug called tofacitinib citrate, which is currently used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. After just two months, pigment had partially returned to the woman’s face, arms and hands, and after five months white spots on her face were almost completely gone. She had a few spots that remained on other parts of her body. The findings are encouraging, especially considering she experienced no adverse side effects while taking the drug. Since the study was only conducted with one woman, more research will need to be done to confirm efficacy and safety. “While it’s one case, we anticipated the successful treatment of this patient based on our current understanding of the disease and how the drug works,” said study author Dr. Brett King, assistant professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine [in a statement](http://news.yale.edu/2015/06/24/vitiligo-patient-arthritis-drug-restores-skin-color). “It’s a first, and it could revolutionize treatment of an awful disease.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3938992/drug-vitiligo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3938992/drug-vitiligo/"},"headline":"This Drug Brought Pigment Back for Woman With Vitiligo","datePublished":"2015-06-27T17:09:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:36:27.610Z","description":"A case study shows promise","url":"https://time.com/3938992/drug-vitiligo/","keywords":["medicine","drug"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt26b678d4c094a223/698858c58e0601a40c461314/skin-pigmentation-arthritis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt26b678d4c094a223/698858c58e0601a40c461314/skin-pigmentation-arthritis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"skin pigmentation arthritis","caption":"skin pigmentation arthritis","creditText":"Dr. Brett King/Yale","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/medicine/","name":"medicine"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3938992/drug-vitiligo/","name":"This Drug Brought Pigment Back for Woman With Vitiligo"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Science Cop: How Anti-Vaxxers Put Everyone at Risk","description":"TIME's Science Cop Jeffrey Kulger takes on the misinformation coming from opponents of childhood vaccinations","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ai82XWJ8/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-09-24T20:18:23.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ai82XWJ8.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3938992/drug-vitiligo/","duration":"PT2M6S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3938992/drug-vitiligo/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```