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Medicine

Some Athletes are Trying the Psychedelic Ibogaine to Treat Brain Injuries (yahoo.com) 57

Posted by EditorDavid from the sports-medicine dept.
"As awareness grows around the dangers of head trauma in sports, a small number of professional fighters and football players are turning to a psychedelic called ibogaine for treatment," reports the Los Angeles Times.

They note that the drug's proponents "tout its ability to treat addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, or TBI. " Ibogaine, which is derived from a West African shrub, is a Schedule 1 drug in America with no legal medical uses, and experts urge caution because of the need for further studies. But the results, several athletes say, are "game-changing".... Although athletes are just discovering ibogaine, the drug is well known within the veteran community, which experiences high rates of brain injury and PTSD. In Stanford's study on the effects of ibogaine on special forces veterans, participants saw average reductions of 88% in PTSD symptoms, 87% in depression symptoms and 81% in anxiety symptoms. They also exhibited improvements in concentration, information processing and memory.

"No other drug has ever been able to alleviate the functional and neuropsychiatric symptoms of traumatic brain injury," Dr. Nolan Williams, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, said in a statement on the results. "The results are dramatic, and we intend to study this compound further...."

States can work faster than the federal government by carving out exemptions for supervised ibogaine therapy programs, similar to what Oregon has done with psilocybin therapy. Many states have also opted to legalize marijuana for medicinal or recreational use... In June, Texas approved a historic $50-million investment in state funding to support drug development trials for ibogaine, inspired by the results seen by veterans. Arizona legislators approved $5 million in state funding for a clinical study on ibogaine in March, and California legislators are pushing to fast-track the study of ibogaine and other psychedelics.
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Some Athletes are Trying the Psychedelic Ibogaine to Treat Brain Injuries More

Some Athletes are Trying the Psychedelic Ibogaine to Treat Brain Injuries

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  • Can we give some to the president? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Sunday September 28, 2025 @10:33PM (#65689214)
    Asking for a friend.

    • Re:Can we give some to the president? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by OrangAsm ( 678078 ) on Sunday September 28, 2025 @10:48PM (#65689224)

      He does seem to have some sort of brain injury. Since we're talking athletic injuries, the only thing "athletic" he does is golf - perhaps he got struck by lightning on the golf course.

      This drug might also help fill the void the brain worm left in RFK Jr.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by davidwr ( 791652 )

        He does seem to have some sort of brain injury.

        I don't see any evidence in the public record that Trump has experienced any traumatic brain injury beyond the normal level of concussions of his peer group. He probably got a few minor ones as a kid and young adult, and he might have bumped his head in ways that he could've walked away from without medical attention since. Nothing unusual for someone who has walked the planet for 79 years.

        To the extent that Trump is having congnitive difficulties (and most 79-year-olds are when compared to the same perso

    • 80 years of neglect? that's beyond repair :)

  • Pro-tip (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Don't confuse ibogaine with iocane, particularly in its powdered form.

    • Came here to say the same thing. In case you're wondering, have it on good authority from a Prof. Humperdinck that you can readily identify iocaine powder by its smell.
  • Governments want to fast track use of hallucinogens? People who would never take one, are going to be prescribing hallucinogens for you? Reach for hallucinogens after you bash your head?

    All I hear is how good hallucinogens are, like they are candy. No mention of the risks and downsides, just enthusiastic cheering. Bad trips happen, and can be more life changing than a good trip. Fast tracking means cutting corners.

    Show of hands here, how many of you promoting these notions have actually done any hallucinoge

    • Re:Color me skeptical (Score:4, Insightful)

      by znrt ( 2424692 ) on Monday September 29, 2025 @12:08AM (#65689288)

      ... bunch of hysterical exaggerations

      investing in supervised ibogaine therapy programs isn't fast-tracking, isn't handing out candy, isn't reaching for hallucinogens after you bash your head and isn't necessarily cutting any corners. what are you specific complaints about this particular practice?

      Am I the only one that smells that it's just money driving this?

      no question that money is/will be involved. like in everything. and people do love fads and trends. that's life on this planet.

      Show of hands here, how many of you promoting these notions have actually done any hallucinogens?

      devious association. who is promoting what notion? what are you even ranting about? that said ...
      * raises hand *
      have you?

      No mention of the risks and downsides

      please elaborate.

      Bad trips happen

      yes. that's why supervision is in place in therapeutic programs. in personal discovery experiences preparation of and attention to set and setting are in general emphatically advised. in recreational use ofc ymmv. you can't really stop stupid from doing stupid. people have drunk bleach.

      and can be more life changing than a good trip.

      hardly. that's not impossible but is very unlikely, if those things are comparable at all.

      finally, if any government were bent on flooding the populace with drugs (which appears to be your concern) hallucinogens would be the worst possible choice. that would backfire fast ...

      • This topic about using ibogaine or psylocybin or other hallucinogens as "medicine" shows up here regularly, and the arguments always end up right here. Everyone handwaving away the risks prove they prove they have no experience about what they opine about.

        Yes, I've done hallucinogens. I have no need to elaborate the details, but it was either quite a bit, or say, enough to know the risks. I also have observed friends, acquaintances, family members, go thru the ecstasy of a good trip and agony and aftermath

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by znrt ( 2424692 )

          the "fast-tracking" in tfa refers to passing a bill that will allow/facilitate these kind of studies. i've only skimmed it but this seems to be the relevant part:

          11480.1. (a) The panel shall review and may approve research projects to be conducted in this state that would require the administration of Schedule I or Schedule II controlled substances.

          https://leginfo.legislature.ca... [ca.gov]

          it is assumed that these will be subject to qualified approval and under proper supervision and support. that ofc might not be perfect but it is the accepted procedure and regulation for this sort of thing. you might ofc disagree, but i don't see what is so scandalous here to trigger your outburst, let alone the dy

          • Show of hands of who's got experience is still zero.
            You and your study is bla bla bla in theory, paving the road to $$$.

            Go do some, and get back to me.
            Just wait until you get yourself in a tight spot, psychedelically, and then you'll stop ass talking.

            This comment is not limited to znrt, but everyone who thinks this can be understood without ever having experience in the field.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by znrt ( 2424692 )

              the unwarranted aggressiveness of your conversation and the insidiousness and fundamental dishonesty of your argument actually make it quite plausible that you have indeed had a bad trip, and have never got over it. have a happy and terrified rest of your life. bye.

              • Show of hands, chump.

                No? You have no idea what you're talking about.
                But then again this is Slashdot, so, not a surprise.

                Seriously, go get some dope and do it. That will shut you up.
                but also, will make you realize, this isn't something you can just read about and claim to know about.

                There is nothing I have said that is dishonest. Yeah, he did lose 5 years of his life from a 3 day psylocybin trip. He didn't come out of his room for 1 year. Then he carried a bible around with him and whipped it open to read sc
        • "I've seen friends lose 5 years out of their lives due to bad trips. For fucks sake this is serious." I call BS.

          You made several good points up that statement. But there are several things which make that claim highly unlikely.

          First off anyone who would lose "5 years" almost certainly was already was on the road to schizophrenia, dementia, or mania. Issues that would be very unlikely to go away in just 5 years. Psychedelics can bring on mental issues sooner for people who would likely deal with them l
        • Your sources of information appear to be biased. Actual medical and research use of psychedelics is closely supervised.

          This is not fucking SCIENCE. It's psychological and highly unpredictable. ... go out to your local mushroom shack, we have them in Ontario now even though they are illegal, buy a couple grams of mushrooms or acid, drop it ....

          That obviously would not be science. Research is needed to find out whether psychedelics are effective and if so how to use them safely.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Am I the only one that smells that it's just money driving this?

      Sounds like your mind was made up before reading the article, and doesn't matter what the findings are, drugs are bad mmmk? Someone could ask the same thing about general anti drug policy, "is money driving this" ? Why else are some unabuseable drugs illegal? Can't even take a cancer medication without a doctors prescription. There's a good argument to keeping opioids behind authorizations, but as a general policy on anything meeting the criteria of drug? It makes people into finger waggers like the above p

    • All I hear is how good hallucinogens are, like they are candy. No mention of the risks and downsides, just enthusiastic cheering.

      I don't see anything in the article which is suggesting that. This has nothing to do with recreational use of hallucinogens, this is about treating brain injuries and other debilitating conditions affecting the brain like PTSD. A lot of medicine has clearly understood and acknowledged bad side effects, but as long as those are less bad than the disease that medicine treats, it's still a net good. Hell, a lot of cancer treatments involve deliberately introducing toxins into the body, it's still better than j

    • experts urge caution because of the need for further studies

      Except that there'll never be any further study because it's a Schedule 1 drug and you'll never get funding for any study that doesn't repeat the mantra that a Schedule 1 drug is evil. Even if you have to feed your chimpanzees crystal meth instead of MDMA to get the result you want.

  • We're learning that hallucinogens can indeed do wonders for depression and can even result in some degree of brain repair, but they are also capable of worsening depression, causing further brain damage, and even creating whole new conditions the patient hadn't previously suffered with.

    This has been under discussion for well over two decades, in both the US and UK, and, frankly, I'm horrified that there hasn't been much, if any, meaningful research in many of the substances, with the result that the horror

    • I think you have a vastly optimistic view of what psychotropic medicine can do. It's all just percussive maintenance, same as electroshock. Just pray you don't hit the wrong place too hard.

      • I think you have a vastly optimistic view of what psychotropic medicine can do. It's all just percussive maintenance, same as electroshock. Just pray you don't hit the wrong place too hard.

        I think TP's point was, how could any of us know either way? We can't, because the proper research hasn't been allowed and that's a shame.

  • "This Perfect Day" by Ira Levin is a dystopian novel set in a future where a central supercomputer called UniComp controls every aspect of human life globally. People are continuously drugged via monthly treatments that keep them compliant, satisfied, and docile, preventing them from realizing their potential as individuals. The government, known as "The Family," dictates where people live, whom they marry, when they reproduce, and even controls physical traits and natural phenomena like rain.

    "Everything

    • People are continuously drugged via monthly treatments that keep them compliant, satisfied, and docile, preventing them from realizing their potential as individuals.

      That part is already here. SO watches a lot of Hallmark TV, and the commercials are now hawking antipsychotics, mostly for women. But of course, few people want to be suggested that they need to be on an antipsychotic - so they are told they are bipolar.

      So we get antipsychotics like Rexulti, supposedly for bipolar, with commercials where sad women become so very happy happy and go out to eat lunch with other people and meet the man of their dreams.

      Then later in the day, we see commercials to use Rexult

      • TV commercials are terrifying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
        Now we're getting anime-style pharma commercials. I'm sure we're seeing AI generated commercials for drugs now too.

        88% reduction in PTSD symptoms and the other 80+% numbers are amazing though. I tried to sign up for ketamine therapy because
        A: I know I respond well to ketamine since I've been heavily dosed on it for 2 different surgeries and have used it other times as well without bad effects
        B: The old drugs I was prescribed 20 years ago maybe

        • Idk, maybe it's like ECT. It resets the brain for a while, but you eventually get back into the same ruts.

          Semi related. In high school, I had a friend who was a normal guy, as hedonistic as the rest of us. Suddenly he became depressed. He was in my electronic classes. He told us that he liked getting shocked, and he did it fairly often. We all just thought it was kind of odd. Then he turned into an alcoholic, and eventually drank himself to death, around 30 YO.

          I was just a kid, and we were concerned about his crazy amounts of drinking. After learning more about his issues, I'm certain now that he was schiz

        • TV commercials are terrifying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] Now we're getting anime-style pharma commercials.

          I forgot to add - that was terrifying! No! Jeebuz K.Ryste No!

  • until I read what Wikipedia has to say:

    "... lingering side effects like nausea and mood disturbances, which may persist for days. Long-term risks include mania and heart issues such as long QT syndrome, and potential fatal interactions with other drugs".

    I can see taking those risks for really intractable consequences of traumatic brain injury, but only after safer alternatives have been tried. And recreational use seems a really bad bet, unless you're looking for either runner-up or first place position in

    • until I read what Wikipedia has to say:

      "... lingering side effects like nausea and mood disturbances, which may persist for days. Long-term risks include mania and heart issues such as long QT syndrome, and potential fatal interactions with other drugs".

      I can see taking those risks for really intractable consequences of traumatic brain injury, but only after safer alternatives have been tried. And recreational use seems a really bad bet, unless you're looking for either runner-up or first place position in a Darwin award competition.

      I sure as hell wouldn't take that crap, but seems most people are so into drug culture that if a drug is out there, they'll gobble it like candy.

      It is inconsistent as hell as well. Smoking and alcohol are widely derided as sure death, yet taking prescribed drugs that can damage or kill us is somehow good.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        taking prescribed drugs

        The point of a prescription being that medical professionals can balance the risks vs benefits and review the drug for interactions before just handing it out.

        • taking prescribed drugs

          The point of a prescription being that medical professionals can balance the risks vs benefits and review the drug for interactions before just handing it out.

          Well, in an ideal world, the doctors are all wonderful people. When the SO hit 50, they had her try out an antidepressant. The weird part was she wasn't depressed, the Saint doctor said it would augment some pain killers. The results damn near ended our marriage. I'll just leave it at that, the details are pretty nasty.

          Sorry, my. friend, we are being drugged out our ass, so much addicted to meds that we demand more, and the goal is to get everyone on maintenance meds, because profit.

          Granted, I am a

    • > heart issues such as long QT syndrome

      Wikipedia is wrong as usual.

      Ibogaine is contraindicated for people with long QT-interval because it temporarily extends it.

      This is fine for normal people but not if you already have long QT. It's not hard to see on EKG but some underground clinics don't do the EKG and there have been a few deaths.

      There have been no deaths when medically supervised, which is why the Drug Control Act kills people.

  • Experimental only! Oh yeah, we still testing, and don't forget we still gettin high than a mofo

  • Problem sports (Score:3)

    by Improv ( 2467 ) <pgunn01@gmail.com> on Monday September 29, 2025 @10:30AM (#65690190) Homepage Journal

    I'd be good to instead or additionally look into redesigning or banning sports that involve frequent head trauma.

    • or banning sports that involve frequent head trauma.

      A step too far my friend. Telling people they can't do something because they might get hurt is an authoritarian response. Banning it for children? Sure. Banning it for adults? Absolutely not. There could be rules that if it is a professional activity, that certain rules must be followed, but that is as far as you can go in a 'free' society.

      • > but that is as far as you can go in a 'free' society.

        Right. That's why taxpayer-funded medical care is incompatible with a free society.

        When I can't afford a healthier diet and a gym membership because I'm forced to subsidize others' rock climbing, dirtbike racing, rugby, and junk-food diets, we've totally gone over the cliff.

        The whole thing becomes a positive-feedback loop until it detonates.

        Spending 20% of GDP on sick-care with ever-worsening results should terrify any thinking person.

        Everybody shou

  • Because drugs!.

    There's a whole contingent of the USA population who put all drugs in one mental bucket and scream "drugs are baaaaad."

    If the USA government was serious about drug harm reduction, then THCs and hallucinogenics would be legal and cheap so law enforcement resources could focus on cracking down on actually harmful drugs like meth, fentanyl, PCP and it's analogs and so on.

    Eventually, less harmful drugs would crowd out more harmful drugs and drug associated health problems become relatively minor.

    • This is a dumb take.

      Bobby has massive MAGA support and is very much in favor of healing uses of psychedelics.

      You'd looking for enemies among your allies. That's a sure sign of media brainwashing.

      Pharma is your enemy, not your neighbor.

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