Ibogaine interferes with motivational and somatic effects of naloxone-precipitated withdrawal from acutely administered morphine.
Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry – February 01, 2002
Source: PubMed
Summary
A key challenge in overcoming opioid dependence is the intense discomfort of withdrawal. This research explored if a compound called ibogaine could lessen both the physical and psychological distress of withdrawal, even after brief opioid exposure. Rats received morphine twice, then experienced induced withdrawal. Before withdrawal, some received ibogaine, others a placebo. Remarkably, ibogaine significantly reduced signs of withdrawal. Rats given ibogaine showed less aversion to environments associated with withdrawal and exhibited fewer physical symptoms compared to controls. These findings demonstrate ibogaine's potential to alleviate acute opioid withdrawal, addressing both its physical and motivational aspects.
Abstract
It has been reported that ibogaine interferes with somatic withdrawal reactions in rats chronically treated with morphine. The present experiments demonstrated that ibogaine also interferes with motivational withdrawal reactions and somatic withdrawal reactions in rats treated with morphine on only two occasions. On each of two conditioning trials, naloxone was administered 24 h following an injection of morphine. Four hours prior to each naloxone administration, rats were injected with either ibogaine or saline. In two experiments, ibogaine interfered with naloxone-precipitated withdrawal. In Experiment 1, ibogaine-treated rats displayed a weaker aversion to the withdrawal-paired chamber, and in Experiment 2, ibogaine-treated rats displayed fewer somatic withdrawal reactions than did saline treated rats.