Summary: Yes, new research shows that ibogaine can help people with PTSD. However, the research was conducted in an atypical manner: a small group of combat veterans reported dramatic success with ibogaine treatment for PTSD at a clinic in Mexico, which caught the attention of a group of researchers at Stanford University, who designed a study to assess the impact of ibogaine on veterans with a history of TBI and PTSD.
Key Points:
- Ibogaine is a psychoactive alkaloid made from the roots of a plant native to West Africa, the iboga, used in traditional healing practices and rituals.
- Previous research shows ibogaine can help people in addiction treatment for drugs of misuse including prescription and synthetic opioids cocaine, heroin, and alcohol.
- Emerging evidence shows ibogaine may is a promising treatment for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and anxiety disorders.
- Early research into ibogaine involved documentation of severe cardiac events, which attenuated interest in ibogaine as a therapeutic medication.
- The emergence of psychedelic therapy in mental health treatment, combined with anecdotal reports of the effectiveness of ibogaine for PTSD, led to renewed interest in ibogaine among medical and mental health researchers.
Renewed Interest in Psychedelic Therapy, New Funding for Ibogaine
On April 18th 2026 officials in the federal government issued an order to improve a new and emerging area of mental health treatment: psychedelic medication. Here’s how The White House describes the new initiative:
“[This] order will accelerate access to treatments for patients with serious mental illness…advancing solutions that provide hope to Americans with devastating, complex, and treatment-resistant conditions.”
The new order includes various assignments for several federal agencies:
- Requires the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to fast-track funding for research into psychedelic drugs that have received Breakthrough Therapy designations for treating serious mental illnesses in order to prevent delay.
- Directs the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Agency to facilitate access into psychedelic medications, including ibogaine compounds.
- Requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to match state government investments into psychedelic treatment for serious mental illness.
- Requires HHS and the FDA to support the Department of Veterans Affairs and private sector stakeholders in their effort to conduct clinical trials for experimental psychedelic therapies.
- Directs the Department of Justice (DOJ) to review and reschedule previously controlled medications upon FDA approval, if and when appropriate to improve mental health treatment.
The increased attention to and acceleration of research into new and emerging psychedelic treatments is important to all people with serious mental illness, and for people with posttraumatic stress disorder – including combat veterans – in particular. In a separate press release from the executive branch, both the Special Operations Association of America and the director of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) support the new initiative.
Statement from the SOAA:
“A monumental victory for veteran healthcare…the SOAA is proud to have led this effort since 2021. More access to critical treatments for veterans is here.” – SOAA
Statement from the DAV:
“DAV applauds the order to accelerate research and expand access to innovative plant-based therapies for veterans living with the invisible wounds of war. For far too many veterans, conditions like post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury remain inadequately treated by conventional approaches, leaving them without timely or effective care.” – Commander Colin Knee
It’s clear the initiative has support from key groups with compelling interests in the outcomes of the research. With mental health disorders and suicidality increasing year over year for combat veterans, protecting veteran mental health is now a national priority.
For the rest of this article, we’ll review the research that led to this new support for psychedelic psychiatric medication, and learn more about how medications like ibogaine can help people with PTSD, including civilians and combat veterans alike.
Ibogaine: Preliminary Research on Ibogaine and Mental Health
A study published in 2022 called “A Systematic Literature Review of Clinical Trials and Therapeutic Applications of Ibogaine” established the foundation for the current research on ibogaine. In their review, researchers identified early research that showed promise:
- A large-scale study on people major depressive disorder showed significant symptom reduction after ibogaine treatment, measured by standard clinical metrics
- A large-scale study on veterans in mental health treatment showed ibogaine reduced symptoms of:
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Major depressive disorder (MDD)
- Anxiety (GAD) and related disorders
However, among the studies considered in that analysis, significant safety risks appeared, with two fatalities identified in those studies, and dozens reported elsewhere. Investigation revealed that those deaths involved people currently using other drugs and/or with opioid use disorder, and were associated with cardiac arrhythmias, known commonly as irregular heartbeat.
New Research on Ibogaine: Will it Help People With PTSD?
To address the problem with co-occurring drug use and cardiac arrhythmias during testing, research scientists designed a study that (a) excluded patients with current drug use and (b) added an ingredient to ibogaine to mitigate risk of cardiac/heart complications.
The study we briefly mention in our introduction, with ibogaine treatment occurring in Mexico, and pre- and post-treatment outcome data occurring at Stanford University, was called “Magnesium–Ibogaine Therapy in Veterans With Traumatic Brain Injuries.” The Stanford research team describes the research as follows:
“In the present study, we report a prospective observational study of the Magnesium–Ibogaine: the Stanford Traumatic Injury to the CNS protocol (MISTIC), provided together with complementary treatment modalities, in 30 male SOVs with predominantly mild TBI.”
As we mention in the summary introduction, the study was unique. A group of special operation veterans formed a small community of peers that shared information with one another about a PTSD/mental health treatment at a clinic in Mexico that – and we paraphrase – could reset your brain and cure PTSD in just one session.
When Dr. Nolan Williams at Stanford University learned about the treatments, he partnered with a veterans group and recruited a total of 30 veteran special forces officers to participate in a study designed to assess the impact of ibogaine on PTSD. Researchers administered the following four (4) assessments for each participant before treatment, immediately after treatment, and one month after treatment:
- World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS)
- Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5)
- Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS)
- Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A)
It’s important to understand that the participants in this study were special forces veterans with extensive combat experience, a history of multiple deployments, and a history of serious mental health challenges.
Here are the specifics on the group of the 30 veterans in the study:
- Age: 35-52 years old
- Combat deployments: ~5 per veteran
- Time since discharge from service: 3-8 years
- Mental health status (co-occurring diagnoses explain total >30):
- PTSD: 23
- PTSD with dissociation: 6
- Major depressive disorder: 15
- Anxiety disorder: 14
- Alcohol use disorder (AUD): 15
- Other substance use disorder (SUD)
- TBI status: All (30)
- Suicidality:
- Reported suicidal ideation: 19
- Attempted suicide: 7
Let’s take a look at what they found.
The Results: Ibogaine and PTSD, Depression, Anxiety, and Daily Functioning
To clarify: the veterans took assessments in the U.S., traveled to Mexico for treatment, and returned to the U.S. for the immediate post-treatment and one-month follow up assessments. First, we’ll share the data on the primary outcome measures: level of disability (WHODAS), PTSD symptoms (CAPS-5), depressive symptoms (MADRS), and anxiety (HAM-A).
Baseline, Post-Treatment, One Month Follow Up: Outcomes
WHODAS:
- Baseline: 30.2
- Post-treatment: 19.9
- 1 month follow up: 5.1
CAPS-5:
- Baseline: 31.7
- Post-treatment: 3.9
- 1 month follow up: 4.8
MADRS:
- Baseline: 25.6
- Post-treatment: 2.8
- 1 month follow up: 3.8
HAM-A:
- Baseline: 20.8
- Post-treatment: 3.6
- 1 month follow up: 3.9
Those results – for one dosage session – are literally unheard of in mental health treatment. In the next set of bullet points, we share the percentage reduction for each metric, as calculated by the research team.
Post-Treatment, One Month Follow Up: Percent Reduction and Remission Rate
CAPS-5 Reduction:
- Post-treatment: 88%
- 1 month follow up: 88%
CAPS-5 Remission:
- Post-treatment: 86%
- 1 month follow up: 86%
MADRS Reduction:
- Post-treatment: 87%
- 1 month follow up: 87%
MADRS Remission:
- Post-treatment: 83%
- 1 month follow up: 83%
HAM-A Reduction:
- Post-treatment: 81%
- 1 month follow up: 81%
HAM-A Remission:
- Post-treatment: 86%
- 1 month follow up: 83%
Again, those results are atypical for one dose of one psychiatric medication. Previous research shows that among combat veterans, PTSD is often treatment resistant, with remission rates documented between 20 and 40 percent. An 86 percent remission rate for treatment resistant PTSD among combat veterans is – and we don’t exaggerate – an astounding outcome, which we’ll discuss further below.
In addition to the promising data on PTSD, depression, and anxiety, participants showed significant improvement on the WHODAS subscales measuring core functional abilities. All participants in the study showed improvement in the following areas:
- Cognition
- Community participation
- Life activities
- Interpersonal relationships
- Self-care
- Personal mobility
We’ll discuss the implications of this research below.
How Ibogaine Can Help Our Patients
Very important disclaimer:
Before ibogaine can help any of our patients here in Southern California, it must go through a period of rigorous clinical testing in random controlled trials to replicate the results above, meet standards for safety, and identify best practices for dosage, delivery, and all other factors associated with FDA approval.
With that said, ibogaine has the potential to be a step forward in PTSD treatment and may also be a step forward for treatment for anxiety and depression. The research team observes:
“At baseline, study participants experienced clinically meaningful levels of disability, PTSD, depression and anxiety. After MISTIC, participants showed a remarkable reduction in these symptoms and the benefits were sustained at the 1-month follow-up.”
That’s another novel finding: the results lasted for at least one month, with may indicators trending toward long-term improvement. Here again, the research team observes:
“This is possibly the first study to report evidence for a single treatment with a drug that can improve chronic disability related to repeated TBI from combat/blast exposures. Moreover, there is no currently available US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatment for chronic sequelae of combat-related TBI.”
One reason the federal investment in ibogaine is critical is that the promise it shows is truly remarkable. Consider the view of one of the study participants, interviewed by Stanford Medicine News Center:
“I wasn’t willing to admit I was dealing with any TBI challenges. I just thought I’d had my bell rung a few times — until the day I forgot my wife’s name. Since [ibogaine treatment], my cognitive function has been fully restored. This has resulted in advancement at work and vastly improved my ability to talk to my children and wife.”
Those anecdotes are hard to ignore, but in order for a new medication to receive approval, the FDA needs extensive data and evidence-based, peer reviewed research. The study authors recognize the potential for expectation bias in the data above:
“Importantly, the present study was not a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and participants elected to travel internationally for the treatment. As such, we cannot exclude the possibility that the therapeutic benefits were a result of expectancy rather than MISTIC.”
When the results of the research supported by the new federal investment in ibogaine and other psychedelic medications are published, we’ll report on them here. In the meantime, we’ll offer patients the best possible mental health treatment available. If ibogaine passes clinical trials and safety protocols, we’ll review the details and consider adding it to our list of evidence-based treatment options for PTSD.
Gianna Melendez
Jodie Dahl, CpHT