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Gold Chloride for Alcoholism

Gold chloride was touted as a cure for alcoholism in the late 1800s. Dr. Leslie Enraught Keeley founded a chain of treatment centers all over the country that provided the "gold cure."

  1. Treatment for Addicts

    • In 1879, the doctor founded his first Keeley Institute in Dwight, Illinois. He treated alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addictions with "double chloride" or "bichloride" of gold.

    Not Really Gold

    • The cure was actually composed of strychnine, atropine, arsenic, glycerine and cinchona. Patients received a combination of injections and oral doses.

    Early Group Therapy

    • Dr. Keeley engaged his patients in a precursor of group therapy. This factor might be more responsible for the institute's limited success than the gold cure.

    Quick Rise and Fall

    • The gold cure fad peaked in the 1890s, when every state housed a Keeley Institute. The cure was mostly discredited by 1900. Keeley was dismissed as a quack.

    Many Questionable Uses

    • In the late 1800s and early 1900s, gold chloride was a suggested therapy for several conditions, including lupus, tuberculosis and nervous disorders.

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