Open-label trial · 2026
Brain imaging before and after ibogaine treatment in 30 veterans with brain injury
- Original title
- Neural Correlates of Ibogaine: Evidence From Functional Neuroimaging of Military Veterans.
- Authors
- Sridhar M, Azeez A, Geoly AD, et al.
- Journal
- Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, 2026
- Molecules
- Ibogaine
- Conditions
- Other
- Participants
- 30
- Evidence grade
- Low
- Source
- Read the original paper
The question
What happens in the brain after ibogaine treatment, and do those changes track with symptom improvement in veterans living with the after-effects of traumatic brain injury?
What they did
Researchers scanned the brains of 30 male Special Operations Forces veterans who received ibogaine treatment for the lasting effects of traumatic brain injury. Two types of magnetic resonance imaging were used: one measuring blood flow to brain regions at rest, and one measuring how brain networks communicate with each other. Scans were taken before treatment, immediately after, and again one month later. The analysis looked across the whole brain rather than testing a small set of pre-chosen regions.
What they found
Blood flow at rest rose gradually in cortical, limbic and striatal brain regions, and connectivity patterns shifted across a wide range of brain networks. The size of the blood-flow change in two regions, the left insula and the left anterior cingulate cortex, was significantly correlated with improvement in disability symptoms related to traumatic brain injury. The abstract reports no specific effect sizes, symptom scores or safety findings.
The fine print
There was no placebo or control group, no blinding, and only 30 participants, all male veterans, so the findings cannot show that ibogaine caused the brain changes or the symptom improvements. The analysis was exploratory across the whole brain, which raises the chance of false positives, and follow-up was only one month. The authors themselves call for larger controlled studies. This summary is based on the abstract alone.
What it means
This is an early, hypothesis-generating look at how the brain changes after ibogaine treatment in a small, selected group of veterans; it does not establish that ibogaine works or is safe for brain-injury symptoms.
Evidence grade: Low. Uncontrolled, unblinded study in 30 men with exploratory whole-brain imaging analyses and no comparison group.
This summary is based on the study’s published abstract.