Differential effects of ibogaine on behavioural and dopamine sensitization to cocaine.
European journal of pharmacology – June 16, 2000
Source: PubMed
Summary
A surprising insight into *ibogaine*'s potential against *addiction* reveals it can specifically target how the brain adapts to *cocaine*. Researchers investigated ibogaine's impact on rats, observing both physical and brain-level responses to cocaine exposure. Crucially, ibogaine *abolished* the brain's *dopamine sensitization*—a key neuroadaptation associated with chronic cocaine use. This demonstrates ibogaine's ability to reverse a fundamental brain change, highlighting a promising mechanism for its anti-addictive properties.
Abstract
To investigate a possible basis for the proposed anti-addictive property of ibogaine, the effects of ibogaine (40 mg/kg, i.p., 19 h earlier) on the expression of sensitization induced by cocaine were investigated. Ibogaine pretreatment potentiated the increase in the stereotypic effects of a cocaine challenge (20 mg/kg) in both sensitized (5 x 15 mg/kg, i.p.) and acutely treated rats. However, while ibogaine pretreatment did not significantly alter the dopamine response in the nucleus accumbens to acute cocaine, it abolished the expression of cocaine-induced dopamine sensitization. This result demonstrates that ibogaine pretreatment can reverse one of the neuroadaptations produced by chronic cocaine administration, an effect that may contribute to its putative anti-addictive property.