Gold injections show harmful side-effect

Press, 3 October 1979, Page 6

Gold injections show harmful side-effect

PA Dunedin i A Dunedin medical team? has isolated a new harmful {side-effect of gold injections/ ■ ujsed in the treatment of I rheumatic, disorders. i i The team, headed by Dr AT. Pollock, an associate processor in neurology at the! Otago Medical School, has': proved conclusively in experiments that the injections can cause permanent nerve damage in animals. Gold has been used forh many years in the treatment! of rheumatoid arthritis. It is.! i particularly effective in re- ■ ducing rheumatic pain but) I does little to stop the pro-! i gression of the disease. The treatment has been], known for some time to pro- i i duce some unwanted side-ef-q fects, including blood and-t kidney disorders. q

' Now. after three years of research with rats. mice, guinea pigs, and hens, Dr Pollock believes that he has proof of the nerve damage caused by gold injections. The experiments showedj {that all the animals suffered] [from consistent nerve dam-| ■age which was related to the' i size of the gold dose they had been given. Dr Pollock emphasised i that his findings did not • mean that gold should be i banned in. the treatment of rheumatism. He said that it was still an extremely effective form of treatment for, ' rheumatism. The nerve damage result-: ]in.. from the gold injections; jis a relatively rare complication but it does give an early warning that it is present.

“The recent suggest!. o * (that a fortnightly gold main tenance regimen should bs ■ continued after a rheumatoid remission is achieved is most unwise.” Dr Pollock ! said. i Because medical author (ities are now alert to th< J possibilities of gold’s causing some disorders. Dr Pol' (lock believes it is unlikely ! that it will lead to any deaths. However. in Britair 'where 17.000 prescription? 1 for gold were being issued annually b\ 1970. three I people die each year of gold therapy. I The research was supported by a grant from toe Neurological Foundation; Dt Pollock believes that it i« the only research of its type lin the world.