Drug promising for vets with PTSD
Limited study shows dramatic improvements
Herb Daniels attempted suicide twice before he decided he’d try anything to make life livable again.
The 52-year-old former Green Beret had traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, and had survived the loss of many fellow soldiers, including some to suicide. He turned to alcohol and prescription drugs after retirement. Neither dulled the excruciating emotions.
In July 2022, Daniels booked a trip to Tijuana for an experimental psychoactive treatment. He knew little about ibogaine, a psychedelic derived from an African rainforest plant, and neither do many U.S. scientists. But he signed up for the treatment anyway, along with other combat veterans, compelled by reports of its curative potential.
“The reality is I could only lean on hope,” said Daniels, of Tacoma, Washington, “because I really needed it to work if I was going to live.”
Stanford University was there to collect data for a study that stemmed from “a willingness to essentially believe the patient, believe the family and really understand why people were seeing such great benefit,” psychiatry associate professor Dr. Nolan Williams, told USA TODAY.
In findings Williams and his team published Friday in Nature Medicine, ibogaine appeared to reduce the symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression, and improve cognitive function from traumatic brain injuries for the majority of special forces veterans studied, including Daniels.
The study is among the first to explore the use of ibogaine, a Schedule I drug, to repair traumatic brain injury caused by head trauma or blast explosions. It comes amid growing support and federal funding for the use of psychedelic drugs to treat trauma in veterans.
Daniels said he hopes treatments like these might aid fellow soldiers trying to recover. Suicide rates are higher among veterans than the general population, and even higher among special forces personnel, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
MAIA ANDERSON/CINCINNATI ENQUIRER FILE
The results
The study followed 30 male special forces veterans with a history of mild traumatic brain injury after combat. Most had PTSD, half suffered from major depression disorder and half had an anxiety disorder.
Ibogaine is not currently available in the U.S., so Daniels and the others traveled to a Mexico clinic. The nonprofit Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, or VETS, paid for the veterans to travel and schedule treatment.
One month after treatment, veterans saw an 88% decrease in PTSD symptoms, an 87% decrease in depression and an 81% drop in anxiety. They also had improved cognitive function, with better concentration, information processing, memory and impulsivity control. The study observed no side effects from the treatment, although some patients reported headaches and nausea.
There’s existing evidence of ibogaine’s effectiveness in treating addiction and depression. But David Olson, director of the Institute for Psychedelics and Therapeutics at the University of California, Davis, said the Stanford study appears to be the first to have used the drug to address traumatic brain injury. Olson is not affiliated with the study.
In addition, though doctors have used psychedelics to address individual health issues, ibogaine is unusual in its apparent ability to treat multiple conditions simultaneously, Williams said.
More study needed
The study authors are quick to note that their research is a first step with obvious limits: a small sample, all men, nearly all white and all former combat veterans. Additionally, the men knew they would be getting ibogaine, preventing comparison to results where some participants receive a placebo.
Dr. John Krystal, the chair of Yale Medical School’s psychiatry department, is unaffiliated with the study. He said the findings are intriguing and but preliminary. It’s hard to know the extent to which benefits should be attributed to the drug versus other aspects of the treatment experience or general tendency of the patients – elite veterans who are willing to travel to Mexico – to bounce back, he wrote in an email.
For the leaders of VETS, the nonprofit that backed the study, the results are affirming.
“It’s allowing someone to thrive and to live,” co-founder Amber Capone said. Her husband first took ibogaine in 2017 to help with traumatic brain injuries after years as a football player and Navy SEAL. “Not fighting a war internally. Not fighting a war inside the walls of their own home. But actually being at peace.”
Growing federal support
Research into psychedelic treatments has drawn bipartisan support from lawmakers. President Joe Biden recently signed into law the updated National Defense Authorization Act, including $10 million for research on psychedelic treatments for active-duty service members with traumatic brain injuries, PTSD and other ailments.
U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, a former SEAL, advocated for that funding. The overall goal, he said, is to find safe psychedelic therapies through clinical trials. The Stanford study moves that forward, he said.
“We’ve already seen it save lives, but this is through anecdotal evidence,” Crenshaw told USA TODAY. “We need a strong, verifiable authority to do those trials.”
Since the treatment, Daniels, the former Green Beret, started his own home improvement business. He also helps other veterans navigate such treatment options. He credits VETS and the Department of Veterans Affairs with giving him the tools to move forward.