They had post-traumatic stress disorder, and a cannabis called Ibogaine helped them get better
On the use of Ibogaine for treating PTSD: A case study in Mexico with veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VET Solutions), an organization that helps veterans access psychedelic treatments
After several tours of duty with the US Army, Joe had to return to his hometown in 2011.
He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He tried talk therapy and a range of medications, but they didn’t help. He attempted suicide twice in 2012. He was fighting a war in his head. He retired in 2015 after 20 years in the Army.
Eventually, he learned about Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, a Texas-based organization helping service members access psychedelic treatments in countries where such drugs are legal or unregulated. He was paid by the group to fly to Mexico to take part in a study about the effects of a drug called ibogaine.
There is a shrub native to Central Africa that barks Ibogaine, it is used for ceremonial purposes. Researchers have tended to shy away from exploring the use of ibogaine for the treatment of conditions other than opioid dependence and withdrawal2, because it is tightly regulated in many countries and can cause fatal heartbeat irregularities, says Maria Steenkamp, a clinical psychologist who studies PTSD in veterans at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City.
The hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms, MDMA, is one of the drugs that have promise to change psychiatric treatments. Now, a small trial in military veterans suggests that a lesser-known, potent psychedelic drug called ibogaine could be used to treat traumatic brain injury (TBI). After ibogaine was given to veterans, the symptoms of traumatic brain injuries (TSI) such as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression had fallen by over 80%.
Veterans are already at a high risk of developing psychiatric conditions because of their combat experiences, and physical trauma to the head, such as from blast explosions, can compound that risk. Antidepressants and antianxiety drugs don’t address the underlying injury to the brain.
Nolan Williams studies ibogaine, a psychedelic drug that suppresses cardiac side effects. The effect of magnesium supplementation is not a controlled group
“The drug seems to have a broad, dramatic and consistent effect,” says Nolan Williams, a neuroscientist at Stanford University in California and a co-author of the study. The results of the trial, which did not include a control group, are published today in Nature Medicine.
Researchers played no part in the administration of the drug. The magnesium supplement was given to reduce the risk of cardiac side effects.
The researchers found that after one month of treatment, the participants had an average reduction in their symptoms of 81%. On average, participants had mild-to-moderate disability before treatment and no disability one month after treatment, as assessed by a survey about their cognition, mobility and other functions.
There is a chance that ibogaine might be temporarily re-opening a critical period in which the nervous system is very susceptible, according to research by Gl Dlen. Dölen and her colleagues tested ibogaine and four other psychedelics in mice, and found that ibogaine was the “rockstar of the group”, keeping the critical period open for at least four weeks, compared with up to two weeks for psilocybin, she says.
Researchers claim that a psychedelic drug called ibogaine could be used to treat traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in military veterans. A study conducted in Mexico showed that symptoms of traumatic brain injuries fell by 80% after ibogaine was given to veterans. Researchers also found that the drug was the “rockstar” of the group, keeping critical period open for at least four weeks.