I am really fascinated and heartened to see studies like this for alternative treatments for a whole host of mental health issues. Great potential for a lot of trauma and mental disorders.
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www.yahoo.com
Herb Daniels attempted suicide twice before he decided he'd try anything to make life livable again.
The 52-year-old former Green Beret had traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, and had survived the loss of many fellow soldiers over the years, including some to suicide. He had turned to alcohol and prescribed medications after his retirement in 2017. Neither dulled the excruciating fear and anxiety.
In July 2022, Daniels booked a trip to Tijuana to become part of an experimental psychoactive treatment. He knew little about ibogaine, a psychedelic derived from the root bark of a plant from the African rainforest, and neither do many U.S. scientists. But he signed up for the treatment anyway, along with other combat veterans, compelled reports of its curative potential.
“The reality is I could only lean on hope,” said Daniels, of Tacoma, Washington, “because I really needed it to work if I was going to live.”
In findings published Friday in Nature Medicine, ibogaine appeared to reduce the symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression, and improve cognitive function from traumatic brain injuries, for Daniels and the majority of more than two dozen other special forces veterans who participated. The Stanford University study is among the first to explore the use of ibogaine to repair traumatic brain injury caused by head trauma or blast explosions.
The findings are among the earliest research on ibogaine, a Schedule I drug. They come amid growing support and federal funding for the use of psychedelic drugs to treat trauma in veterans. Ibogaine is not currently available in the U.S., so veterans must travel to Mexico and other countries for treatment.
Daniels and the others traveled to a grassroots clinic in Mexico that was providing this treatment. It was there that Stanford researchers observed and collected data on patient outcomes.
“It’s a fundamentally grassroots thing,” Dr. Nolan Williams, study author and a Stanford Medicine associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, told USA TODAY. “It was really driven by these early observations, and then on our end by a willingness to essentially believe the patient, believe the family, and really understand why people were seeing such great benefit.”
Daniels said he hopes treatments like these might aid fellow soldiers trying to recover from 20 years of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Suicide rates are higher among veterans than the general population, according to a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs report in 2023. Research indicates the suicide rate among special forces personnel is even higher.
The nonprofit Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, or VETS, paid for the veterans to travel and independently schedule treatment at the Ambio Life Sciences clinic. They were given ibogaine pills based on their weight, with an average dose of just over a gram of ibogaine, given under the supervision of medical staff that included doctors, nurses and EMTs, the study said.
The dose was combined with an intravenous infusion of one gram of magnesium sulfate given before the pill, meant to address ibogaine's risks in delaying normal electrical signals that control heart rhythm, which can result in death. The Stanford study observed no side effects from the treatment, although some reported headaches and nausea.
The veterans were coached and monitored by clinicians before, during and after treatment.
Using disability assessments on a scale of 0 to 100, veterans collectively began the program with an average rating of 30.2, meaning they had a mild to moderate disability. The average rating improved to 5.1 one month after they'd had the treatment, which meant, according to the scale, that the men no longer registered as having a disability. One month after the treatment, veterans saw an 88% decrease in PTSD symptoms; an 87% decrease in depression; and an 81% drop in anxiety. They also improved cognitive results showing better concentration, information processing, memory and impulsivity control.
The participants in the study underwent a single session of ibogaine treatment.
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Combat veterans took a psychedelic drug for PTSD. Then this happened.
The study by Stanford researchers is the first to explore the use of the psychedelic ibogaine to repair traumatic brain injury.
Herb Daniels attempted suicide twice before he decided he'd try anything to make life livable again.
The 52-year-old former Green Beret had traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, and had survived the loss of many fellow soldiers over the years, including some to suicide. He had turned to alcohol and prescribed medications after his retirement in 2017. Neither dulled the excruciating fear and anxiety.
In July 2022, Daniels booked a trip to Tijuana to become part of an experimental psychoactive treatment. He knew little about ibogaine, a psychedelic derived from the root bark of a plant from the African rainforest, and neither do many U.S. scientists. But he signed up for the treatment anyway, along with other combat veterans, compelled reports of its curative potential.
“The reality is I could only lean on hope,” said Daniels, of Tacoma, Washington, “because I really needed it to work if I was going to live.”
In findings published Friday in Nature Medicine, ibogaine appeared to reduce the symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression, and improve cognitive function from traumatic brain injuries, for Daniels and the majority of more than two dozen other special forces veterans who participated. The Stanford University study is among the first to explore the use of ibogaine to repair traumatic brain injury caused by head trauma or blast explosions.
The findings are among the earliest research on ibogaine, a Schedule I drug. They come amid growing support and federal funding for the use of psychedelic drugs to treat trauma in veterans. Ibogaine is not currently available in the U.S., so veterans must travel to Mexico and other countries for treatment.
Daniels and the others traveled to a grassroots clinic in Mexico that was providing this treatment. It was there that Stanford researchers observed and collected data on patient outcomes.
“It’s a fundamentally grassroots thing,” Dr. Nolan Williams, study author and a Stanford Medicine associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, told USA TODAY. “It was really driven by these early observations, and then on our end by a willingness to essentially believe the patient, believe the family, and really understand why people were seeing such great benefit.”
Daniels said he hopes treatments like these might aid fellow soldiers trying to recover from 20 years of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Suicide rates are higher among veterans than the general population, according to a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs report in 2023. Research indicates the suicide rate among special forces personnel is even higher.
'Believe the patient'
The study followed 30 male special forces veterans from November 2021 to November 2022. All had a history of traumatic brain injury and had been exposed to repeated blasts that brought on subsequent psychiatric symptoms and disabilities. Twenty-three people in the study had PTSD, half met the criteria for having a major depressive disorder and 14 had an anxiety disorder.The nonprofit Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, or VETS, paid for the veterans to travel and independently schedule treatment at the Ambio Life Sciences clinic. They were given ibogaine pills based on their weight, with an average dose of just over a gram of ibogaine, given under the supervision of medical staff that included doctors, nurses and EMTs, the study said.
The dose was combined with an intravenous infusion of one gram of magnesium sulfate given before the pill, meant to address ibogaine's risks in delaying normal electrical signals that control heart rhythm, which can result in death. The Stanford study observed no side effects from the treatment, although some reported headaches and nausea.
The veterans were coached and monitored by clinicians before, during and after treatment.
Using disability assessments on a scale of 0 to 100, veterans collectively began the program with an average rating of 30.2, meaning they had a mild to moderate disability. The average rating improved to 5.1 one month after they'd had the treatment, which meant, according to the scale, that the men no longer registered as having a disability. One month after the treatment, veterans saw an 88% decrease in PTSD symptoms; an 87% decrease in depression; and an 81% drop in anxiety. They also improved cognitive results showing better concentration, information processing, memory and impulsivity control.
The participants in the study underwent a single session of ibogaine treatment.
its a hook authors use to get you to actually read the article 