The psychedelic substance ibogaine has the potential to treat chronic disorders caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI). A single dose of this drug resulted in sustained improvements in physical and social function, cognition and mood in veterans with combat-related traumatic brain injury.

“This is the first time someone has actually been able to show that there is a neurorehabilitation effect with psychedelic drugs and that there are fairly deep signs of improvement,” he says. nolan williams at Stanford University in California.

He and his colleagues recruited 30 male veterans with traumatic brain injuries to attend a treatment facility in Mexico for five days. They were each given ibogaine, a hallucinogenic substance extracted from the iboga plant, which is native to Africa. Everyone met with a therapist before and after taking ibogaine to discuss preparation for the psychedelic experience. Participants can also participate in activities such as yoga, massage, and meditation on-site.

Participants took 12 milligrams of ibogaine per kilogram of body weight and received an intravenous infusion of magnesium to prevent heart problems associated with the drug. The researchers measured participants' disability before and after treatment on a scale of 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater disability. At the beginning of the study, participants' average score was 30, meaning mild to moderate disability. After 4-5 days of treatment, this score dropped below 20, and after 1 month it was around 5, indicating no disability.

At least 83 percent of participants no longer met criteria for depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) one month after treatment. They also saw significant improvements in processing speed, problem solving, and working memory.

However, it is unclear whether this effect is solely due to hallucinogens. “The big problem is [that] Without a control group, it will be nearly impossible to say for sure what's going on here. ” Albert Garcia Lomu at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. He says talking to a therapist, participating in wellness activities, and even traveling may have contributed to these improvements.

But many of these variables have previously been studied as treatments for neurological diseases with little success, Williams said. He believes a series of mechanisms could explain how ibogaine can treat traumatic brain injury. For example, he says, the drug is known to increase neuroplasticity, or the brain's ability to rewire.