Ibogaine is associated with reorganization of high-beta brain networks in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder

In this observational/non-randomised study, of veterans, researchers ask, " What is happening in the brain that might explain clinical improvements in PTSD after ibogaine treatment? They found Ibogaine treatment was associated with a lasting reorganization of brain networks, specifically a shift in high-beta activity from frontal to posterior regions - and this shift was linked to improvements in PTSD symptoms.

“Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating condition that affects millions of veterans. A recent observational study in 30 veterans showed that a single dose of the atypical psychedelic ibogaine can be highly effective at treating PTSD up to twelve months later.

Although a prior study demonstrated that ibogaine transiently alters electroencephalography (EEG) power in various frequency bands, the long-term, network-level neural mechanisms targeted by ibogaine are unclear. Here, we investigated whether ibogaine-related clinical improvements are associated with the reorganization of certain brain networks.

We applied a novel framework, FREQuency-resolved brain Network Estimation via Source Separation (FREQ-NESS), to identify frequency-specific brain networks in resting-state EEG data acquired at baseline, three to four days after treatment (immediate-post), and one month after ibogaine.

At both the immediate-post and one month-post timepoints, high-beta (24 and 25 Hz) networks shifted away from frontal areas and towards posterior regions, an effect that was replicated in an independent EEG dataset on ibogaine treatment for opioid use disorder. This posterior shift was significantly correlated with improvements in PTSD symptoms at both timepoints. Neural field modeling demonstrated that these posterior high-beta shifts are associated with increases in corticocortical, but not corticothalamic, connectivity.

Our results are consistent with prior evidence implicating aberrant frontal beta-band activity in PTSD. Overall, we demonstrate that the reconfiguration of high-beta brain networks could be a robust biomarker for ibogaine’s therapeutic effects.”

Kenneth Shinozuka, Mattia Rosso, Anna Chaiken, Jennifer I. Lissemore, Reece Jones, Nelson Descalco, Venkatesh Subramani, Maarten Belgers, Kirsten N. Cherian, Martijn Arns, Davide Momi, Raag D. Airan, Leonardo Bonetti, Arnt Schellekens, Maheen M. Adamson, Corey J. Keller, Cammie Rolle. Ibogaine is associated with reorganization of high-beta brain networks in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
bioRxiv 2026.03.20.713241; Read Paper

For more psychedelic news and research, visit the psychedelic health professional network homepage.