Accelerated recovery using magnesium ibogaine: characterizing the subjective experience of its rapid healing from neuropsychiatric disorders

The study analyzed narrative reports from 30 male U.S. Special Operations veterans treated once with magnesium-ibogaine (ibogaine plus magnesium) for traumatic brain injury (TBI), PTSD, depression, and other neuropsychiatric conditions. Using grounded-theory qualitative analysis, researchers identified four recurrent experiential domains that characterize how participants described their healing during and after the session

“Magnesium-ibogaine, a formulation combining ibogaine with pre- and post-treatment magnesium, was recently found to yield rapid clinical improvements in U.S. Special Operations veterans with TBI and PTSD. Yet, its therapeutic phenomenology during such healing is unknown.

We analysed post-session narratives from 30 male veterans who, after a single open-label magnesium-ibogaine treatment, answered three open-ended questions. A constructivist grounded-theory approach identified four recurrent experiential domains: dialogic trauma reappraisal marked by guided replay of autobiographical memories; altered self and mystical connectedness; emotional resolution with surges of forgiveness, love, and renewed purpose; and embodied healing, a vivid sense of neural repair accompanied by cognitive clarity and somatic relief.

Together, these themes portray an accelerated, self-directed psychotherapeutic process that dovetails with previously reported improvements in this same cohort, suggesting mind–body mechanisms involving rapid neuroplastic change and highlighting its potential to inform novel approaches to trauma and TBI.”

Olash, C., Buchanan, D.M., Brown, R. et al. Accelerated recovery using magnesium ibogaine: characterizing the subjective experience of its rapid healing from neuropsychiatric disorders. npj Mental Health Res 5, 8 (2026). Read Paper

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