A dose of psychedelic ibogaine may help brain injury patients

The psychedelic drug ibogaine may be able to provide some much-needed help to brain-injured patients. A new small study finds that veterans with a history of traumatic brain injury experienced significant improvements in symptoms of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when treated with ibogaine and magnesium. The researchers say the findings warrant larger clinical trials of the drug against these injuries and other brain diseases.

Ibogaine is derived from the root of the ibogaine plant (The Tabernacle is grateful), native to Central Africa.Even today, people in the region still use the drug’s hallucinogenic effects as ceremonial ceremony. But recently, some people have also started taking it for therapeutic reasons. Senior study author Nolan Williams, a psychiatrist and director of Stanford University’s Brain Stimulation Laboratory, has encountered some of these cases, such as special operations operations with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) Veterans who report life changes after taking ibogaine. Eventually, the stories intrigued him and his team enough to dig deeper.

“Research on ibogaine is limited, with much of it focusing on its potential as a treatment for substance use disorders,” Williams told Gizmodo in an email. “But it has broad effects on the brain, including those associated with many different “The interaction of neurotransmitter systems, as well as its ability to increase so-called trophic factors that support brain cells’ ability to grow and reconnect, make it likely that ibogaine may have additional therapeutic potential.”

Ibogaine is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance, meaning it is not considered to have any legal therapeutic use in the United States, so the research team had to find a way around it to carefully study its effects on TBI patients. They partner with VETS, Inc, a non-profit organization that helps veterans safely access psychedelic therapy. With support from VETS, the team identified 30 special operations veterans with a history of TBI and mental health issues who planned to travel to a clinic in Mexico to seek treatment with ibogaine, where the drug is legal.

Prior to the visit, researchers conducted a series of tests to measure participants’ levels of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression symptoms, and their overall functioning. However, ibogaine use is associated with cardiac complications. So the researchers also arranged for participants to receive a certain dose of magnesium at the same time, hoping to prevent or reduce this risk. After the veterinarians returned home, the team measured them again and found a huge difference.

“On average, a single treatment with ibogaine combined with magnesium to prevent the known cardiac risks of ibogaine significantly improved these symptoms immediately after treatment and one month later,” Williams said. “Again, officially Cognitive tests also showed improvements in participants’ attention, information processing, memory and impulsivity compared to before treatment with ibogaine.”

The team’s research results, publish The Nature Medicine article published Friday does not mean that ibogaine should become the new standard of care for veterinarians suffering from TBI and related problems. But Williams said they do suggest it’s time to study the drug more broadly as a treatment for traumatic brain injuries and other possible brain diseases.

“We believe these results support the need for rigorous double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials in the United States,” he said. “If our findings are replicated in such trials, the large effect of ibogaine in TBI suggests that it may have broader therapeutic potential and potentially become a neurorehabilitation drug for other neuropsychiatric disorders.”

The team is currently analyzing other data collected from these veterans, including MRI and EEG results, to understand exactly how ibogaine changed their brains for the better, which will inform their future research plans .