--- 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: 2026-08-04T08:05:07.419Z 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=1198&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1198 og:image:height: 674 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=1198&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Drug Brought Pigment Back for Woman With Vitiligo > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=ef2ec49a-9619-437d-b6be-8f7a8a6e49ca&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## 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.” ## Transcript So, our recent report claimed that a 2004 study withheld a link between vaccines and autism in African American boys. No surprise, the anti- vaccine crowd considered this a big win. But again and always, they're wrong. Here's why. [ MUSIC ] First, the subjects excluded from the study had no birth certificates available. Meaning data on their mother's age, race and more could not be confirmed. And that information was vital for the work the investigators were doing, More important, the people criticizing the research make the familiar mistake of confusing associated with causation. While it's true that the study did find a slightly higher rate of autism among some kids vaccinated between 24 and 36 months of age, it's almost certain that those children were already autistic and were vaccinated later as part of a basic health requirement for attending special education program [ MUSIC ] programs. If you join the Army and get a mandatory crewcut before basic training, you don't then conclude that military service causes baldness. Finally, the narrator of a disgraceful web video spreading the rumors about the study is Andrew Wakefield. The British researcher whose fraudulent 1998 paper falsely linking vaccines to autism got the entire got the entire anti- vaccine mess started. Wakefield has had his license to practice medicine revoked in the UK. And is hardly in a position to be offering opinions on anything at all. So for the billionth time, vaccines are safe, effective and vitally important. Rumor mongering, on the other hand, can kill. 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