POSTER PRESENTERS

Ibogaine is a non-addictive psychoactive alkaloid which is derived primarily from the root bark of the Tabernathe iboga, a plant medicine utilized in traditional Central West African rituals of healing and rites of passage. Ibogaine has been proven to act as a powerful “addiction disrupter” by mitigating withdrawal symptoms and reducing cravings, especially in the treatment of opioid addiction. However, due to its psychedelic properties, ibogaine is illegal and unavailable for medical use in most countries, including the U.S. The majority of academic studies on ibogaine have narrowly focused on understanding the biological effects of the substance and determining whether or not ibogaine treatment reduces withdrawal symptoms and curbs drugs cravings. In contrast, this IRB-approved work of medical anthropology centers the subjective experiences of patients undergoing ibogaine treatment for opioid addiction and elucidates how the psychedelic experience produced by ibogaine facilitates healing. This research challenges the dominant biomedical understanding of addiction as a primarily brain-based biological disorder and pays attention to recent research, which highlights the link between trauma and addiction. Findings from this project show that in addition to working on a biological level, ibogaine works on emotional, psychological, and spiritual levels to heal the root causes of addiction. Data for this project was collected primarily through pre-treatment, post-treatment, and follow-up interviews with American patients who, after having little success with traditional addiction treatments, sought ibogaine treatment for opioid addiction at a detoxification clinic in Mexico, where ibogaine is unregulated.