Ibogaine I
Along with a new friend, magnesium, we might have a winner?
The Frontier Psychiatrists is a daily health-themed newsletter. Today: a psychedelic compound, well on its way to becoming a medicine. The African shrub Iboga has roots, and those roots contain the following compound:
Ibogaine may be the farthest thing from a “fun club drug” you can find. The experience of consciousness alteration and “psychedelic trip” is very stereotyped. It’s also all in your head—people are around to help you physically if you need to get to the bathroom, but, as Nolan R. Williams, M.D. explains:
the ibogaine trip itself is essentially internal and self-directed. People often experience a life review that appears in their mind almost like a slideshow, Williams says. “It somehow drives a particular sort of psychological phenomenon that you don’t achieve through guidance,” he adds.
People describe a similar experience, in which they are in a room, and get to watch a slide show or movie of challenging experiences, with the ability to take a new perspective. For example, this journalist:
During the treatment, I was able to analyze that voice, slow it down, really listen to it, and for the first time, uncover where it came from. It turns out that the voice was based in some deep childhood trauma, as well as genetic experiences passed down through my DNA that weren’t even mine.
The most powerful moment of my experience was when I got to see myself as a little girl, who, because of some things that happened, didn’t feel safe in the world. And I got to hold her, stroke her, tell her I love her, and really help her feel safe.
Through that process, as I came out of the ibogaine treatment, I felt like my whole nervous system had been rewired. And when I listened for the negative voice in my head, it was gone.
I felt this new sense of calm, deep peace, and lightness that I probably haven’t felt since I was two years old. And the lasting effects have been truly remarkable for me.
Lasting effects is the crucial phrase, there. It’s actually beyond lasting—the impact seems to improve outcomes over time for individuals.
Let's look at the paper by Cherian et al.1
Start with table one, but it's a different kind of table one assessment that we usually do in this newsletter because nobody was randomized. Everybody got the active treatment, so there's no difference between groups, everyone is the Study group. So we want to know who is in the group so we know what to think of the study, not randomization succeeded because there was no randomization.
